Job 28:1-11

III. Job’s Search for Wisdom (28:1-28)

No Known Road to Wisdom

28:1 “Surely there is a mine for silver,

and a place where gold is refined.

28:2 Iron is taken from the ground,

and rock is poured out as copper.

28:3 Man puts an end to the darkness;

he searches the farthest recesses

for the ore in the deepest darkness.

28:4 Far from where people live he sinks a shaft,

in places travelers have long forgotten,

far from other people he dangles and sways.

28:5 The earth, from which food comes,

is overturned below as though by fire;

28:6 a place whose stones are sapphires

and which contains dust of gold;

28:7 a hidden path no bird of prey knows –

no falcon’s eye has spotted it.

28:8 Proud beasts have not set foot on it,

and no lion has passed along it.

28:9 On the flinty rock man has set to work with his hand;

he has overturned mountains at their bases.

28:10 He has cut out channels through the rocks;

his eyes have spotted every precious thing.

28:11 He has searched the sources of the rivers

and what was hidden he has brought into the light.