28 “Surely there is a mine for silver,
    and a place for gold which they refine.
² Iron is taken out of the earth,
    and copper is smelted out of the ore.
³ Man sets an end to darkness,
    and searches out, to the furthest bound,
    the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
⁴ He breaks open a shaft away from where people live.
    They are forgotten by the foot.
    They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
⁵ As for the earth, out of it comes bread.
    Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
⁶ Sapphires come from its rocks.
    It has dust of gold.
⁷ That path no bird of prey knows,
    neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.
⁸ The proud animals have not trodden it,
    nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
⁹ He puts his hand on the flinty rock,
    and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
¹⁰ He cuts out channels among the rocks.
    His eye sees every precious thing.
¹¹ He binds the streams that they don’t trickle.
    The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.

¹² “But where will wisdom be found?
    Where is the place of understanding?
¹³ Man doesn’t know its price;
    Neither is it found in the land of the living.
¹⁴ The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’
    The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’
¹⁵ It can’t be gotten for gold,
    neither will silver be weighed for its price.
¹⁶ It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir,
    with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.^[a]
17 Gold and glass can’t equal it,
    neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
¹⁸ No mention will be made of coral or of crystal.
    Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
¹⁹ The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it,
    nor will it be valued with pure gold.
²⁰ Where then does wisdom come from?
    Where is the place of understanding?
²¹ Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living,
    and kept close from the birds of the sky.
²² Destruction and Death say,
    ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

²³ “God understands its way,
    and he knows its place.
²⁴ For he looks to the ends of the earth,
    and sees under the whole sky.
²⁵ He establishes the force of the wind.
    Yes, he measures out 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, yes, and searched it out.
²⁸ To man he said,
    ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord,^[b] that is wisdom.
    To depart from evil is understanding.’”