28 “Surely there is a mine for silver,
and a place for gold that they refine.
2 Iron is taken out of the earth,
and copper is smelted from the ore.
3 Man puts an end to darkness
and searches out to the farthest limit
the ore in gloom and deep darkness.
4 He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives;
they are forgotten by travelers;
they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro.
5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread,
but underneath it is turned up as by fire.
6 Its stones are the place of sapphires,1
and it has dust of gold.
7 “That path no bird of prey knows,
and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.
8 The proud beasts have not trodden it;
the lion has not passed over it.
9 “Man puts his hand to the flinty rock
and overturns mountains by the roots.
10 He cuts out channels in the rocks,
and his eye sees every precious thing.
11 He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle,
and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
12 “But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
13 Man does not know its worth,
and it is not found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
15 It cannot be bought for gold,
and silver cannot be weighed as its price.
16 It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
in precious onyx or sapphire.
17 Gold and glass cannot equal it,
nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
18 No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;
the price of wisdom is above pearls.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,
nor can it be valued in pure gold.
20 “From where, then, does wisdom come?
And where is the place of understanding?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living
and concealed from the birds of the air.
22 Abaddon and Death say,
‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’
23 “God understands the way to it,
and he knows its place.
24 For he looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
25 When he gave to the wind its weight
and apportioned 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, 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.’”
Section Overview
Is Job still speaking in Job 28? It is difficult to know. On one hand, the topic (the place where wisdom is found) and the language (there is no direct addresses to the friends or God, and no heated accusatory language to either as well) might make us surmise that this chapter contains the narrator’s voice. Like the director of a play, he stops the drama, comes down from the production booth, and addresses the audience. Speaking with a voice of serenity, tranquility, and almost scientific objectivity, he reminds both the audience and the actors of the path that Job and his friends need to take in order to arrive at the answer they seek: the wisdom of God found in the fear of God (v. 28).
On the other hand, the voice might be Job’s, for he has had his moments, even quite recently (cf. 26:6–14), of deep reflection on the attributes and actions of God. He has also spoken specifically of “thick darkness” (3:6; 10:22 [2x]; 23:17), valuable stones (“gold,” 3:15a; 23:10; “silver,” 3:15b; 27:16–17; “iron,” 19:24), “Abaddon” (26:6), “death” (3:21; 7:15; 9:23), and “wisdom,” including:
Moreover, Job seems to jump intentionally from topic to topic in his final speech (Job 26–31). He speaks of the unsearchable majesty of God (26:6–14), personal integrity (27:1–6), the judgment of the wicked (27:7–23), finding wisdom (28:1–28), the good old days (29:1–25), the terrible current days (30:1–31), and his integrity again (31:1–40). In this way, chapter 28 is not out of place. In fact, if Job is the speaker, the hymn signals to the reader something of Job’s (a) spiritual growth, (b) steadfastness, and (c) wisdom—his fearing God (v. 28a; cf. 26:6–14) by turning away from evil (28:8b; cf. 27:4–6; 31:1–40). Job as the speaker also fits God’s commendation of Job’s words in Job 42:7–8 (“spoken of me what is right”). Surely Job 28:1–28 tops the list of speaking rightly about God!
Section Outline
Response
In Job 28 we find a stillness that has temporarily tamed the troubled waters. In chapters 1–2 we witnessed the waves of tragedy striking righteous Job, one wave of woe after another: the wave that consumed his children; the wave that swallowed up his wealth; the wave that still crushes against his fragile body. In chapters 3–27 we observed the vain attempts of both Job and his friends to still this terrible flood of misfortune. But thankfully, before all is lost, refuge is to be found in chapter 28, where divine wisdom in a sense stands up, extends its arms, and rebukes the unsettling seas—the shallow waves of human perception and understanding. The answer to the question “But where shall wisdom be found?” (v. 12) is answered in God (v. 23) and the fear of God, which involves turning away from evil (v. 28).
We might be so familiar with the Bible that we do not find this answer odd. How would most people in our culture answer this key question? Would God even be in the equation? If so, there certainly will not be anything about fearing him. Most people are optimistic about finding wisdom. One can find it through natural intelligence, acquired intelligence, or just life experience. The man with the high IQ, the woman with the elite education, the kid with street smarts—they can surely find wisdom. But the Bible says no! Not the kind of wisdom that we need to really live, not the kind of wisdom that Job needs to live through inexplicable suffering.
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job are not God’s version of Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack—“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”—or the ancient Chinese sayings of Confucius—“Silence is a friend who will never betray.” They are certainly not just a less humorous version of “Never argue with a fool; people might not know the difference.” No, what sets the content of books like Job apart from the rest of the world’s wisdom literature are claims like the one we find in 28:28: the acquisition of true wisdom comes from a right relationship with Yahweh and an appropriate attitude toward him. “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.”
As Christians who desire to read the Bible canonically and with Christ at the center, we have license to take this answer a bit further. While it is true that in creation and providence God manifests his wisdom, it is likewise true, as taught throughout the NT, that God most perfectly or more fully manifests his wisdom in the person and work of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul speaks in Ephesians 3:8–11 of the “manifold wisdom of God” revealed or “realized” in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in Colossians 2:3 he explains how “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are “hidden” in Christ; finally, in 1 Corinthians 1:23–24, he claims that the preaching of “Christ” and him “crucified” is the “wisdom of God.”
So, not only does the NT teach that all wisdom comes to us from God through Christ; the NT likewise teaches the surprising truth that the wisdom of God is most fully displayed in the death of Christ. Just as it is only through the death of Christ that we have access to eternal life, so too it is only through the cross of Christ that we have access to wisdom. When we read and reread the story of Job, we have the wonderful benefit of placing (so to speak) our knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of him crucified, as a transparent grid over this OT text. And unlike the characters in the book of Job or the first several centuries of readers of Job, we can easily connect the dots between the wisdom displayed in the sufferings of innocent Job and the wisdom displayed in the sufferings of innocent Jesus. The NT sheds remarkable light on the story of Job and on this grand theme of wisdom.