It is hidden from the eyes of all living, And concealed from the birds of the air.
Parallel translations
- WEB Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
- KJV Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
- BSB It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the air.
- NASB “It is hidden from the eyes of every living creature, And concealed from the birds of the sky.
- NLT It is hidden from the eyes of all humanity. Even the sharp-eyed birds in the sky cannot discover it.
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 is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, even concealed from the birds of the sky.
Overview
Job declares that wisdom is invisible to all creatures, including the far-sighted birds mentioned earlier. No living being can locate it by natural sight or searching. This emphasizes that wisdom must be revealed from above rather than discovered below, pointing to God as its sole giver (verse 23).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Ps 49:3–4My mouth will speak words of wisdom. My heart shall utter understanding.
- Col 2:3in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.
- 1 Cor 2:7–10But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory,
- Matt 11:25At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.
- Matt 13:35that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.”
- Matt 13:17For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 28:21 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.