What the Miner Cannot Dig Up
Miners tunnel through rock for silver and sapphires, going where no falcon has looked. But wisdom cannot be mined or bought; the deep and the sea say it is not here. Only God knows its place, and he told humankind: fear God, turn from evil.
28 1"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. 2Iron is taken from the dust, and copper is smelted from the rock. 3Man sets a boundary to the darkness; he searches to the farthest limit for ore in gloom and deep shadow. 4He sinks a shaft far from where people live, in places where no foot has ever walked; there they dangle and sway, far away from anyone. 5The earth—from it comes food, yet beneath it is turned over as by fire. 6Its stones hold sapphires, and its dust holds gold. 7It is a path no bird of prey knows, one the falcon's eye has never seen. 8The proud beasts have not trodden it, nor has the lion prowled across it. 9Man lays his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains at their roots. 10He cuts channels through the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. 11He holds back the trickling streams, and brings hidden things to light.
12"But wisdom—where can it be found? And where is the place of understanding? 13Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living. 14The deep says, 'It is not in me,' and the sea says, 'It is not with me.' 15It cannot be bought with the finest gold, nor can its price be weighed out in silver. 16It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. 17Gold and crystal cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for vessels of pure gold. 18Coral and crystal are not worth mentioning; the price of wisdom is beyond rubies. 19The topaz of Cush 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? 21It is hidden from the eyes of all the living, concealed even from the birds of the sky. 22Destruction and Death say, 'With our ears we have heard a rumor of it.'
23"God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. 24For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. 25When he gave the wind its weight and measured out the waters, 26when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt, 27then he saw wisdom and declared it; he established it and searched it out.
28And he said to humankind, 'The fear of God—that is wisdom, and to turn from evil is understanding.'"
