1Surely there is a mine for silver, And a place for gold which they refine.
2Iron is taken out of the earth, And copper is smelted out of the stone.
3Man sets an end to darkness, And searches out, to the furthest bound, The stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
4He breaks open a shaft away from where men sojourn; They are forgotten by the foot; They hang far from men, they swing to and fro.
5As for the earth, out of it comes bread; And underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
6Its stones are the place of sapphires, And it has dust of gold.
7That path no bird of prey knows, Neither has the falcon’s eye seen it:
8The proud beasts have not trodden it, Nor has the fierce lion passed by it.
9He puts out his hand on the flinty rock; He overturns the mountains by the roots.
10He cuts out channels among the rocks; And his eye sees every precious thing.
11He binds the streams so that they do not trickle; And the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
12But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
13Man does not know its price; Neither 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 gotten for gold, Neither shall silver be weighed for its price.
16It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, With the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
17Gold and glass cannot equal it, Neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
18No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal: Indeed, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
19The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
20From where then does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?
21Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, And kept close from the birds of the heavens.
22Destruction and Death say, We have heard a rumor of 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 heaven;
25To make a weight for the wind: Indeed, he measures out the waters by measure.
26When he made a decree for the rain, And a way for the lightning of the thunder;
27Then he saw it, and declared it; He established it, indeed, and searched it out.
28And to man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.