Where Can Wisdom Be Found?
For there is a source for silver, and a place for gold they refine.
Iron is taken from the dust, and stone is poured out as copper.
He puts an end to darkness, and to every limit he searches out — the stone of gloom and the shadow of death.
He breaks open a shaft away from where anyone dwells; forgotten by the foot, they dangle, far from men they swing.
The earth — from it comes bread; and beneath it, it is overturned as by fire.
Its stones are the place of sapphire, and it has dust of gold.
A path no bird of prey knows, and the eye of the falcon has not glimpsed it.
The proud beasts have not trodden it; the fierce lion has not passed over it.
He puts his hand to the flint; he overturns mountains from the root.
He splits channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing.
He binds up the streams from weeping, and brings the hidden thing out to light.
But wisdom — where is it found? And where is the place of understanding?
A mortal does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living.
The Deep says, “It is not in me”; and the Sea says, “It is not with me.”
Fine gold cannot be given for it, and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
It cannot be valued against the gold of Ophir, against precious onyx or sapphire.
Gold and glass cannot equal it, and its exchange is not a vessel of fine gold.
Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned; and the drawing out of wisdom is beyond pearls.
The topaz of Cush cannot equal it; it cannot be valued against pure gold.
But wisdom — where does it come from? And where is the place of understanding?
It is hidden from the eyes of all the living, and concealed from the birds of the heavens.
Abaddon and Death say, “With our ears we have heard a report of it.”
God understands its way, and he knows its place.
For he looks to the ends of the earth; he sees under all the heavens,
making a weight for the wind, and measuring out the waters by measure;
when he made a limit for the rain, and a way for the thunderbolt —
then he saw it and recounted it; he established it, and also searched it out.
And he said to man, “Look, the fear of the Lord — that is wisdom; and to turn away from evil is understanding.”