BOOK 18 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Job 28

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Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

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Job 28 Overview

Job 28 celebrates human skill in mining the earth while asking where wisdom itself can be found. No creature, wealth, depth, or sea can purchase or locate it. God alone understands wisdom’s place, and the chapter concludes that the fear of the Lord is wisdom and departing from evil is understanding.

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Before you read Job 28

Coming from

Chapter 27 ended with Job maintaining integrity while affirming judgment on wickedness.

In this chapter

The debate pauses for a wisdom meditation: humans can uncover hidden minerals, but ultimate wisdom belongs to God.

Leads into

Chapter 29 returns to Job’s personal speech as he remembers his former life of honor, service, and fellowship with God.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Whether this chapter is read as Job’s continued words or as a poetic interlude, its role is clear: the disputants cannot mine the answer to Job’s case by human skill. Wisdom belongs to God and begins with reverence and moral turning from evil.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Human technical ability does not equal ultimate wisdom.

Truth 2

Wisdom is not a commodity that wealth can purchase.

Truth 3

The fear of the Lord and departure from evil are identified as the path of wisdom.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10 likewise identify the fear of the LORD as the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.

Connection 2

Ecclesiastes 12:13 ends by calling people to fear God and keep His commandments.

Connection 3

James 1:5 directs those lacking wisdom to ask God, the true source.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not reduce “fear of the Lord” to mere terror; in wisdom literature it includes reverence and submission.

Keep this clear 2

The final statement concerns wise living, not a formula for earning eternal life through works.

Keep this clear 3

The chapter does not give Job the hidden explanation of chapters 1–2; it redirects the reader toward humility before God’s wisdom.

Read Job 28 watching for…

The sophistication of human mining described in the opening.

The repeated question, “Where shall wisdom be found?”

Things that cannot purchase wisdom.

God’s unique knowledge of wisdom.

The chapter’s final definition of wisdom and understanding.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-11Man searches deep in the earth and brings hidden treasures to light 12-19Wisdom cannot be found in the earth or purchased with gold and precious stones 20-28God alone knows the way of wisdom, and the fear of the Lord is wisdom

Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.

Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.

He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.

The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.

As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold.

There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen:

The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.

He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots.

He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing.

He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.

But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?

Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.

The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.

It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.

It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.

No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.

The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?

Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.

For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven;

To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.

When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.

And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

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Job 28:3

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