Chapter Twenty-Eight

Continuation of Job’s speech. 1–11. The display of human wisdom in acquiring precious metals and stones. 12–28. True wisdom is not accessible to mankind.

Having finished the preceding speech with a description of the destruction of the wicked, Job proceeds to clarify its causes. The wicked is destroyed because his prosperity is not secure in its foundation. It is created on the basis of wealth, the possession of gold and silver, and the latter are of earthly origin, perishable and unstable. The wisdom which is able to ensure human existence and is found in the fear of God is inaccessible to the wicked, for it is known only to God and is revealed to those who heed His teaching, consequently, not to the wicked. In view of such reasoning, Job proceeds to describe the extraction of precious metals as a manifestation of human wisdom.

Job 28:1. Indeed, silver has a source vein, and gold a place where it is refined. “Silver has a source vein” – Hebrew “mocha” – a place from which something emerges naturally (Job 38:27; 1 Sam 10:28), and “gold a place where it is refined” – Hebrew “yazoku” – they cleanse it from impurities (1 Chr 28:18; Ps 11:7; Mal 3:3).

Job 28:2. Iron is obtained from the earth; copper is smelted from stone. Iron is extracted from the depths of the earth, and “copper is smelted from stone,” from metal ore cast into the smelting furnace, by the force of fire, copper mass is smelted.

Job 28:3. Man sets a bound to darkness and thoroughly searches for stone in gloom and shadow of death. Metals are hidden in the earth, but man knows how to find them. For this he penetrates the depths of the earth, brings the necessary lighting for metal extraction into a place where darkness once reigned.

Job 28:4. They sink a mining shaft in places forgotten by foot, they descend into the depths, hang and sway far from people. Shafts or wells are dug far from inhabited places, and workers, descending into them by means of ropes or other devices, inevitably must hang in the air.

Job 28:5. The earth, on which grain grows, is internally hollowed out as if by fire. Job 28:6. Its stones are a place of sapphire, and in it are specks of gold. Since shafts are dug not only in the vertical direction relative to the earth but also horizontally, its interior appears hollowed out, as if burned by fire. Here, within the earth, in its rocks, they find transparent bluish sapphire and golden specks.

Job 28:7. The path to it a bird of prey does not know, and the eye of the hawk has not seen it; Job 28:8. the lions have not trodden it, and no jackal has walked upon it. They are hidden in such a depth that neither the far-sighted eagle (Synodal: “bird of prey”) nor the hawk can perceive it, and no jackals and lions, which roam everywhere seeking prey, have been in these remote places.

Job 28:9. On granite he lays his hand, he overturns mountains at their roots; Job 28:10. in rocks he cuts out channels, and his eye sees every precious thing; Job 28:11. he stops the flow of streams and brings hidden things to light. In extracting metals and precious stones, man is not hindered by spatial distances (vv. 7–8), nor do other difficulties and obstacles matter to him. He breaks granite stones, causes collapses where needed, “cuts out channels in rocks” (Hebrew “jeorim”) – galleries, so that it is possible to follow the ore veins of metal and divert water that hinders the work to the side.

Job 28:12. But where is wisdom found? And where is the place of understanding? The earth and earthly things give knowledge of earthly things; but that which is above the earth is not given by the earth. She cannot impart wisdom (Hebrew “chochmah”), knowledge of things in their essence, their ultimate foundations, and that highest religious-moral vision which indicates the norms of human existence.

Job 28:13. Man does not know its price, and it is not found on the land of the living. Job 28:14. The deep says: “Not in me”; and the sea says: “Not with me. Wisdom will not be found by man on earth, even if he offered for possession of it all his treasures and explored the terrestrial globe in all directions: the surface of the earth (“land of the living” cf. Ps 26:13; Isa 38:11), the waters beneath (Hebrew “tegom”, cf. Gen 49:25), and the ocean surrounding the earth.

Job 28:15. It is not given for gold, nor is it acquired for weight of silver; Job 28:16. it is not valued with the gold of Ophir, nor with precious onyx, nor with sapphire; Job 28:17. it is not equal to gold and crystal, and it is not exchanged for vessels of pure gold. Job 28:18. Regarding coral and pearl – there is nothing to mention, and the acquisition of wisdom is more valuable than rubies. Job 28:19. The topaz of Ethiopia does not equal it; it is not valued with pure gold. As surpassing all earthly things in its value (v. 13; cf. Prov 3:14-15), wisdom cannot be acquired for riches and treasures: for the purest gold (Hebrew “degor” v. 15, cf. 1 Sam 6:20), for onyxes (Hebrew “togam” – beryl, emerald), for crystals (Hebrew “zekukit” – glass, reckoned in antiquity as precious objects; crystals – Hebrew “gabish” are mentioned below in v. 18), for pearls (Hebrew “ramot”, cf. Ezek 27:16), for crystals (Synodal – “pearls”) and red coral (Hebrew “peninim”, Russian ruby) and for the topaz of Ethiopia (Hebrew “tedat” – Exod 28:17; Ezek 28:13), a yellow-orange diamond, found, according to Pliny’s testimony, in Ethiopia and on the islands of the Red Sea (from which its Indian name, echoing the Hebrew “pita,” that is “pita”).

Job 28:20. Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? If man is not able by his own strength to find wisdom on earth, in the deep and the sea (vv. 13–14), cannot acquire it for earthly treasures (vv. 14–19), then in what manner can one comprehend it, and to whom should one turn for this?

Job 28:21. It is hidden from the eyes of all that lives and concealed from the birds of the air. Job 28:22. Abaddon and death say: We have heard a rumor of it with our ears. Preparing an answer to this question, Job again declares that no living thing, even the everywhere-flying birds with keener sight than man, can tell anything about wisdom. But while visible nature does testify to wisdom, only a rumor of it reaches the underground darkness (v. 22).

Job 28:23. God knows its path, and He knows its place. Job 28:24. For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. The fullness of knowledge of wisdom belongs to God alone, the omnipresent (Bar 3:31-32) and all-knowing.

Job 28:25. When He gave weight to the wind and measured out water, Job 28:26. when He made a statute for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt of lightning, Job 28:27. then He saw it and declared it, established it and tested it It has been known to Him since the time of creation of the world. When the Lord “gave weight to the wind,” that is, determined the degree of its strength and weakness, distributed the water mass across the earth, established the laws of rain, then He “saw wisdom” (v. 27) – contemplated it as an ideal, a prototype of what was being created; “declared it” – revealed, manifested it in created nature, which became its disclosure; “established it” – set it as an immutable law, thereby determining the character of the further existence of all that was created, and finally, “tested” its capacity for further self-development (cf. Prov 8:22-30; Wis 9:9).

Job 28:28. and said to man: Behold, the fear of the Lord is true wisdom, and the turning away from evil is understanding. Having realized in the creation of the world the substance of wisdom – the totality of His ideas about it, the Lord indicated wherein lies the norm of human life. Conforming to it, man conforms to his idea and participates in the universal wisdom. – “Behold, the fear of the Lord...” see the commentary on Job 1:1.