It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Parallel translations
- WEB It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
- BSB It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire.
- NKJV It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx or sapphire.
- NASB “It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx, or sapphire.
- NLT It’s worth more than all the gold of Ophir, greater than precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wisdom cannot be valued against the finest gold of Ophir or precious onyx and sapphire.
Overview
Job names some of the most prized materials of his world, including gold from Ophir famed for its purity, to show they cannot measure wisdom's worth. No earthly treasure is its equal. The point exalts wisdom above all material wealth and anticipates Proverbs' counsel to seek wisdom as the supreme treasure (Proverbs 3:13-15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Isa 13:12I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
- Ezek 28:13Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
- Ps 45:9Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
- Exod 28:20And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings.
- 1 Chr 29:4Even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses withal:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 28:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.