Job 28

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¹“Surely there is a mine for silver, And a place where gold is refined. ✦ ²Iron is taken from the earth, And copper is smelted from ore. ✦ ³Man puts an end to darkness, And searches every recess For ore in the darkness and the shadow of death. ✦ ⁴He breaks open a shaft away from people; In places forgotten by feet They hang far away from men; They swing to and fro. ⁵As for the earth, from it comes bread, But underneath it is turned up as by fire; ✦ ⁶Its stones are the source of sapphires, And it contains gold dust. ✦ ⁷That path no bird knows, Nor has the falcon’s eye seen it. ✦ ⁸The proud lions have not trodden it, Nor has the fierce lion passed over it. ⁹He puts his hand on the flint; He overturns the mountains at the roots. ✦ ¹⁰He cuts out channels in the rocks, And his eye sees every precious thing. ✦ ¹¹He dams up the streams from trickling; What is hidden he brings forth to light. ✦ ¹²“Butwhere can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? ✦ ¹³Man does not know its value, Nor is it 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 purchased for gold, Nor can silver be weighed for its price. ✦ ¹⁶It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx or sapphire. ✦ ¹⁷Neither gold nor crystal can equal it, Nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold. ✦ ¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral or quartz, For the price of wisdom is above rubies. ✦ ¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, Nor can it be valued in pure gold. ✦ ²⁰“Fromwhere then does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? ✦ ²¹It is hidden from the eyes of all living, And concealed from the birds of the air. ✦ ²²Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’ ✦ ²³God understands its way, And He knows its place. ✦ ²⁴For He looks to the ends of the earth, And sees under the whole heavens, ✦ ²⁵To establish a weight for the wind, And apportion the waters by measure. ✦ ²⁶When He made a law for the rain, And a path for the thunderbolt, ✦ ²⁷Then He saw wisdom and declared it; He prepared it, indeed, He searched it out. ✦ ²⁸And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’ ” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Prov 8 ·12 Job 28 ·11 Prov 3 ·5 Job 38 ·5 Prov 2 ·4 Rev 21 ·4 Prov 16 ·4 Jas 1 ·4

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Job 28YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Job 28David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Job 28Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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