Job Chapter 28

Updated: September 14, 2025

The Earth's Treasures

1Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.

2Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.

3He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.

4The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.

5As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

6The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold.

7There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen:

8The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.

9He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots.

10He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing.

11He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.

Wisdom an Excellent Gift of God

12But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?

13Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.

14The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.

15It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.

16It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

17The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.

18No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.

19The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

20Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?

21Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

22Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

23God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.

24For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven;

25To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.

26When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

27Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.

28And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

King James Bible

Text courtesy of BibleProtector.com.

Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

1 “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.

2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore.

3 Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.

4 He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.

5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

6 Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.

7 That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.

8 The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.

9 He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.

10 He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.

11 He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings forth to light.

12 “But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?

13 Man doesn’t know its price; Neither is it found in the land of the living.

14 The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’

15 It can’t be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for its price.

16 It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

17 Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

18 No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.

19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

20 Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding?

21 Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.

22 Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

23 “God understands its way, and he knows its place.

24 For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.

25 He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.

26 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder;

27 then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.

28 To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”

Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

1 “Surely there is a mine for silver

and a place where gold is refined.

2 Iron is taken from the earth,

and copper is smelted from ore.

3 Man puts an end to the darkness;

he probes the farthest recesses

for ore in deepest darkness.

4 Far from human habitation he cuts a shaft

in places forgotten by the foot of man.

Far from men he dangles and sways.

5 Food may come from the earth,

but from below it is transformed as by fire.

6 Its rocks are the source of sapphires,

containing flecks of gold.

7 No bird of prey knows that path;

no falcon’s eye has seen it.

8 Proud beasts have never trodden it;

no lion has ever prowled over it.

9 The miner strikes the flint;

he overturns mountains at their base.

10 He hews out channels in the rocks,

and his eyes spot every treasure.

11 He stops up a the sources of the streams

to bring what is hidden to light.

12 But where can wisdom be found,

and where does understanding dwell?

13 No man can know its value,

nor is it found in the land of the living.

14 The ocean depths say, ‘It is not in me,’

while the sea declares, ‘It is not with me.’

15 It cannot be bought with gold,

nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

16 It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,

in precious onyx or sapphire.

17 Neither gold nor crystal can compare to it,

nor jewels of fine gold be exchanged for it.

18 Coral and quartz are unworthy of mention;

the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.

19 Topaz from Cush b cannot compare to it,

nor can it be valued in pure gold.

20 From where then does wisdom come,

and where does understanding dwell?

21 It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing

and concealed from the birds of the air.

22 Abaddon c and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumor about it.’

23 But God understands its way,

and He knows its place.

24 For He looks to the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

25 When God fixed the weight of the wind

and measured out the waters,

26 when He set a limit for the rain

and a path for the thunderbolt,

27 then He looked at wisdom and appraised it;

He established it and searched it out.

28 And He said to man, ‘Behold,

the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,

and to turn away from evil is understanding.’ ”

Footnotes:

11 a Hebrew; LXX and Vulgate He searches
19 b That is, the upper Nile region
22 c Abaddon  means Destruction .

The Earth's Treasures

1Surely there is for silver a source, And a place for the gold they refine;

2Iron from the dust is taken, And from the firm stone brass.

3An end hath he set to darkness, And to all perfection he is searching, A stone of darkness and death-shade.

4A stream hath broken out from a sojourner, Those forgotten of the foot, They were low, from man they wandered.

5The earth! from it cometh forth bread, And its under-part is turned like fire.

6A place of the sapphire are its stones, And it hath dust of gold.

7A path -- not known it hath a ravenous fowl, Nor scorched it hath an eye of the kite,

8Nor trodden it have the sons of pride, Not passed over it hath the fierce lion.

9Against the flint he sent forth his hand, He overturned from the root mountains.

10Among rocks, brooks he hath cleaved, And every precious thing hath his eye seen.

11From overflowing floods he hath bound, And the hidden thing bringeth out to light.

Wisdom an Excellent Gift of God

12And the wisdom -- whence is it found? And where is this, the place of understanding?

13Man hath not known its arrangement, Nor is it found in the land of the living.

14The deep hath said, 'It is not in me,' And the sea hath said, 'It is not with me.'

15Gold is not given for it, Nor is silver weighed -- its price.

16It is not valued with pure gold of Ophir, With precious onyx and sapphire,

17Not equal it do gold and crystal, Nor is its exchange a vessel of fine gold.

18Corals and pearl are not remembered, The acquisition of wisdom is above rubies.

19Not equal it doth the topaz of Cush, With pure gold it is not valued.

20And the wisdom -- whence doth it come? And where is this, the place of understanding?

21It hath been hid from the eyes of all living. And from the fowl of the heavens It hath been hidden.

22Destruction and death have said: 'With our ears we have heard its fame.'

23God hath understood its way, And He hath known its place.

24For He to the ends of the earth doth look, Under the whole heavens He doth see,

25To make for the wind a weight, And the waters He meted out in measure.

26In His making for the rain a limit, And a way for the brightness of the voices,

27Then He hath seen and declareth it, He hath prepared it, and also searched it out,

28And He saith to man: -- 'Lo, fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to turn from evil is understanding.'

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The F.O.G Commentary

Where Does Wisdom Actually Come From?

What’s Job 28 about?

In the middle of Job’s suffering, he pauses to deliver one of the Bible’s most beautiful poems about wisdom – asking where true understanding comes from when human expertise reaches its limits. It’s like watching someone in their darkest moment suddenly see something profound about the nature of knowledge itself.

The Full Context

Picture this: Job has been arguing with his friends for chapters, going round and round about why bad things happen to good people. His friends keep insisting he must have done something wrong, while Job maintains his innocence. Then suddenly, in chapter 28, Job steps back from the heated debate and delivers this stunning meditation on wisdom. It’s written sometime between 600-400 BCE, probably during or after the Babylonian exile when Israel was grappling with profound questions about God’s justice and the limits of human understanding.

The timing of this poem within Job’s story is fascinating. Right before this, Job has been demanding that God explain himself. Right after, God will actually show up and do exactly that – but not in the way anyone expects. Chapter 28 sits like a hinge between human arguments and divine revelation, exploring what happens when our best thinking hits a wall. The author uses the metaphor of mining – something ancient readers would understand as the most sophisticated technology of their day – to show how even our greatest achievements can’t dig deep enough to find ultimate truth.

What the Ancient Words Tell Us

The Hebrew word for wisdom here is chokmah – but it’s not just book smarts or practical know-how. In Hebrew thinking, chokmah is the ability to navigate life skillfully, to understand how things really work at the deepest level. Job uses mining as his central metaphor because it was the cutting-edge technology of his time.

When Job talks about miners going down into “the roots of mountains” and “overturning mountains by the roots,” he’s describing something that would have seemed almost supernatural to ancient readers. These guys would tunnel deep into the earth, redirecting underground rivers, bringing up precious stones and metals that no one had ever seen. If anyone could find hidden treasures, surely it would be them.

Grammar Geeks

The Hebrew verb chaqar (to search out) in verse 3 is the same word used when God “searches” human hearts. Job is essentially saying that humans can do God-level searching when it comes to the physical world – but wisdom? That’s different territory entirely.

But here’s where Job gets really interesting. He lists all these incredible human achievements – finding gold and silver, cutting through rock, redirecting rivers – and then drops this bombshell: “But where shall wisdom be found?” The Hebrew construction here is emphatic. It’s not “Where can wisdom be found?” but “Wisdom – where is it found?” Like he’s throwing up his hands.

The word maqom (place) appears repeatedly throughout the chapter. Ancient Hebrew thinking was very spatial – everything had its proper place in the order of creation. Gold has its place in the earth. Birds have their place in the sky. But wisdom? Its maqom can’t be located by human searching.

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What Would the Original Audience Have Heard?

Ancient Near Eastern cultures were obsessed with wisdom literature. Egypt had its instruction texts, Babylon had its counselor traditions, and everyone believed that with enough effort and intelligence, you could figure out how life worked. Kings collected wise sayings like we collect self-help books.

So when Job’s original audience heard this poem, they would have recognized it as a direct challenge to their entire worldview. These were people living in a world where wisdom was considered the ultimate human achievement – the thing that separated civilized people from barbarians, successful rulers from failed ones.

Did You Know?

Ancient mining operations were incredibly sophisticated. Archaeological evidence shows that by Job’s time, miners were using complex ventilation systems, water wheels, and even primitive hydraulics. To Job’s audience, miners represented the absolute pinnacle of human ingenuity and determination.

The reference to “the land of the living” not knowing wisdom’s price would have hit hard. In Hebrew thinking, “the land of the living” wasn’t just a poetic phrase – it represented the realm where humans operate, where we can act and influence things. Job is saying that even in our own domain, where we’re supposedly in control, we can’t price wisdom correctly.

When Job mentions that “Abaddon and Death” have only heard rumors of wisdom, his audience would have understood this as the ultimate insult to human knowledge. Even the realm of the dead – which in Hebrew thought was the place where secrets are revealed – only has secondhand information about wisdom.

Wrestling with the Text

Here’s what makes this chapter so challenging: Job seems to be undermining the very thing he’s been doing for the past 25 chapters. He’s been arguing, reasoning, trying to figure out God’s justice through human logic. Now suddenly he’s saying that kind of searching is fundamentally limited?

This isn’t Job giving up on thinking – it’s Job recognizing the difference between technical knowledge and wisdom. You can master mining without understanding why suffering exists. You can navigate the physical world without comprehending the spiritual one.

Wait, That’s Strange…

Job places wisdom’s value above gold and precious stones, but then says it can’t be bought with gold or precious stones. If it’s more valuable than everything else but can’t be purchased with valuable things, what kind of “value” are we talking about? Job is breaking our normal economic categories.

The tension gets even more complex when we realize that Job himself is about to receive wisdom – not through his own searching, but through God’s direct revelation in chapters 38-41. The poem in chapter 28 isn’t pessimistic; it’s preparing us for a different kind of knowing.

There’s also this fascinating grammatical shift that happens in verse 23. Throughout the chapter, Job has been using third-person language – “where is wisdom found?” But when he gets to God, he switches: “God understands its way, and he knows its place.” The Hebrew emphasizes that God doesn’t just know about wisdom’s location – he knows it intimately, relationally.

How This Changes Everything

This chapter reframes everything that’s happened in Job so far. Job’s friends have been offering technical solutions to a wisdom problem. They’ve been treating suffering like a math equation: sin plus consequences equals problems, therefore problems minus repentance equals relief. Job has been doing sophisticated theological reasoning, but he’s been trying to reverse-engineer God’s justice from human categories.

What Job realizes here is that some questions can’t be answered from the bottom up. You can’t mine your way to ultimate truth. You can’t think your way into God’s perspective. That doesn’t make human thinking worthless – Job isn’t promoting anti-intellectualism. The miners in his poem are genuinely skilled and their work has real value.

“The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding. Sometimes the most profound knowledge comes not from digging deeper, but from recognizing when you’re digging in the wrong place.”

The phrase “fear of the Lord” here isn’t about being terrified of God. The Hebrew word yirah includes respect, reverence, and proper relationship. It’s the recognition that some kinds of knowledge can only come through relationship, not research.

This completely changes how we approach difficult questions. Instead of trying to solve the problem of suffering through human logic alone, Job is preparing himself (and us) for a different kind of encounter – one where God reveals himself directly.

Key Takeaway

True wisdom isn’t found at the end of human searching but at the beginning of divine relationship. The most sophisticated thinking in the world can’t substitute for knowing God personally.

Job Chapter 28

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