Job 28:12

Job, having spoken of the wealth of the world, which men put such a value upon and take so much pains for, here comes to speak of another more valuable jewel, and that is, wisdom and understanding, the knowing and enjoying of God and ourselves. Those that found out all those ways and means to enrich themselves thought themselves very wise; but Job will not own theirs to be wisdom. He supposes them to gain their point, and to bring to light what they sought for (Job 28:11), and yet asks, "Where is wisdom? for it is not here." This their way is their folly. We must therefore seek it somewhere else, and it will be found nowhere but in the principles and practices of religion. There is more true knowledge, satisfaction, and happiness, in sound divinity, which shows us the way to the joys of heaven, than in natural philosophy or mathematics, which help us to find a way into the bowels of the earth. Two things cannot be found out concerning this wisdom: -

I. The price of it, for that is inestimable; its worth is infinitely more than all the riches in this world: Man knows not the price thereof (Job 28:13), that is, 1. Few put a due value upon it. Men know not the worth of it, its innate excellency, their need of it, and of what unspeakable advantage it will be to them; and therefore, though they have many a price in their hand to get this wisdom, yet they have no heart to it, Pro 17:16. The cock in the fable knew not the value of the precious stone he found in the dunghill, and therefore would rather have lighted on a barley-corn. Men know not the worth of grace, and therefore will take no pains to get it. 2. None can possibly give a valuable consideration for it, with all the wealth this world can furnish them with. This Job enlarges upon Job 28:15, etc., where he makes an inventory of the bona notabilia - the most valuable treasures of this world. Gold is five times mentioned; silver comes in also; and then several precious stones, the onyx and sapphire, pearls and rubies, and the topaz of Ethiopia. These are the things that are highest prized in the world's markets: but if a man would give, not only these, heaps of these, but all the substance of his house, all he is worth in the world, for wisdom, it would utterly be contemned. These may give a man some advantage in seeking wisdom, as they did to Solomon, but there is no purchasing wisdom with these. It is a gift of the Holy Ghost, which cannot be bought with money, Act 8:20. As it does not run in the blood, and so come to us by descent, so it cannot be got for money, nor does it come to us by purchase. Spiritual gifts are conferred without money and without price, because no money can be a price for them. Wisdom is likewise a more valuable gift to him that has it, makes him richer and happier, than gold or precious stones. It is better to get wisdom than gold. Gold is another's, wisdom our own; gold is for the body and time, wisdom for the soul and eternity. Let that which is most precious in God's account be so in ours. See Pro 3:14, etc.

II. The place of it, for that is undiscoverable. Where shall wisdom be found? Job 28:12. He asks this, 1. As one that truly desired to find it. This is a question we should all put. While the most of men are asking, "Where shall money be found?" we should ask, Where may wisdom be found? that we may seek it and find it, not vain philosophy, or carnal policy, but true religion; for that is the only true wisdom, that is it which best improves our faculties and best secures our spiritual and eternal welfare. This is that which we should cry after and dig for, Pro 2:3, Pro 2:4. 2. As one that utterly despaired of finding it any where but in God, and any way but by divine revelation: It is not found in this land of the living, Job 28:13. We cannot attain to a right understanding of God and his will, of ourselves and our duty and interest, by reading any books or men, but by reading God's book and the men of God. Such is the degeneracy of human nature that there is no true wisdom to be found with any but those who are born again, and who, through grace, partake of the divine nature. As for others, even the most ingenious and industrious, they can tell us no tidings of this lost wisdom. (1.) Ask the miners, and by them the depth will say, It is not in me, Job 28:14. Those who dig into the bowels of the earth, to rifle the treasures there, cannot in these dark recesses find this rare jewel, nor with all their art make themselves masters of it. (2.) Ask the mariners, and by them the sea will say, It is not in me. It can never be got either by trading on the waters or diving into them, can never be sucked from the abundance of the seas or the treasures hidden in the sand. Where there is a vein for the silver there is no vein for wisdom, none for grace. Men can more easily break through the difficulties they meet with in getting worldly wealth than through those they meet with in getting heavenly wisdom, and they will take more pains to learn how to live in this world than how to live for ever in a better world. So blind and foolish has man become that it is in vain to ask him, Where is the place of wisdom, and which is the road that leads to it?

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Can man discover the Divine Wisdom by which the world is governed, as he can the treasures hidden in the earth? Certainly not. Divine Wisdom is conceived as a person (Job 28:12-27) distinct from God (Job 28:23; also in Pro 8:23, Pro 8:27). The Almighty Word, Jesus Christ, we know now, is that Wisdom. The order of the world was originated and is maintained by the breathing forth (Spirit) of Wisdom, unfathomable and unpurchasable by man. In Job 28:28, the only aspect of it, which relates to, and may be understood by, man, is stated.

understanding--insight into the plan of the divine government.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Job 28:12 But where shall wisdom be found? and where [is] the place of understanding?

Ver. 12. But where shall wisdom be found?] Here is now the other part of the antithesis, and the second part of the chapter, which is not as hard as the former was. Wisdom is either natural or spiritual, 1Co 2:11-15, earthly or heavenly, Jas 3:15 The wisdom here inquired after is supernal and supernatural; such as can neither be found upon the earth or dug out of it; such as cannot be fathomed or found out by human abilities or by natural reason. "But God revealeth it unto his by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God," 1Co 2:10. And with this heifer must all those plough that will find out his riddles. Lucisci et qui hebeti sunt visu, saith Vives, Those that are weak sighted and sand blind, if at any time they look wishly upon anything with desire to see it the better, they see it so much the worse, and not as well as they did before (Lud. Viv. in Aug. de C. D., l. 22, c. 6). Think the same of the most acute and perspicacious naturalist; when he comes to look into the things of God, he is not only sand blind, but stark blind, 1Co 2:14, he will not see (and, therefore, who so blind?), he hath an antipathy to Divine truths; he loveth the law better than the gospel, and any truth better than the law. And as for this high point of heavenly wisdom (called here ills sapientia, with an emphasis), whereby is understood that God’s judgments are all just, even then when he afflicteth the godly and prospereth the wicked, he cannot comprehend it, or yield to it; but is ready to turn flat atheist upon it, as Averroes did; denying the Divine providence, and conceiting that all things were carried on by fate and fortune. Job’s enemy like friends herein were no wiser than they should be, when they thus rashly censured him for wicked, because afflicted; and presumptuously took upon them to give a reason of God’s proceedings in his various dispensations with as much confidence as if they had been of God’s privy council, whereas they should have considered, that God’s judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out; and that he who herein is scholar to his own reason is sure to have a fool to his master.

And where is the place of understanding] As there is no vein to be found of the Divine wisdom, so neither any known place (like there is for gold, silver, precious stones) where it ought to be sought, save only of God by prayer, Jas 1:5. Man, whatsoever good success he hath in the before mentioned searches, he is not as happy nor dextrous in that of Divine understanding. Epiphanius resembleth him to the mole, which doth all his work underground; but if once he be brought above ground, as he is stark blind, so is he every way a weak and contemptible creature. The best that are seen but in part, and are sometimes at a loss about the reason of God’s most righteous proceedings, which men must mirari, et non rimari, silently adore, and not overly curiously search into. There is a learned ignorance, saith Calvin, of those things, quae scire nec datur, nec fas est, which it is neither granted us nor fit for us to know; and in this the very desire of knowledge is a kind of madness. Let that saying of Xenophanes be remembered: There is no great difference whether a man set his feet or his eyes in another man’s house without his permission. Arcana Dei sunt arca Dei, God’s secrets are God’s ark; pry not, lest ye come halting home for so doing (Plut. de Curiositat.).

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job_28:12-28

But where shall wisdom be found?

The speculative difficulties of an inquiring intellect solved by the heart of practical piety

Two things are prominently developed in this chapter--Mans power and his weakness; his power to supply the material necessities of his nature, and his weakness to supply his mental cravings.

I. Every inquiring intellect has difficulties which it is anxious to remove. Two classes of intellectual difficulties--those connected with the physical realm of being, and those connected with the moral. The former class are pressing upon scientific men. The latter class by those who think on moral subjects. The difficulties in the moral department press far more heavily and fearfully on the heart of man than those in the physical.

II. That the principle which removes those difficulties can neither be purchased by wealth nor attained by investigation. A search for it in the domain of inanimate nature would be useless. So would a search for it in the domain of life, or in the domain of departed souls. (Death, SheolÌ)

III. The heart of practical piety yields a satisfactory solution of all painful, intellectual duties.

1. This is asserted by one who understands what wisdom is.

2. This is proved by the nature of the case.

(1) By sustaining in the mind an unshaken and cheerful trust in the great Disposer of all things.

(2) By sustaining the consciousness that what we understand not now, we shall know hereafter.

(3) By clearing away from the mind those feelings which prevent the intellect from understanding spiritual things.

(4) By giving the soul a ruling sentiment kindred to the primary impulse of God. Piety, then, is the Wisdom, the solvent principle. (Homilist.)

The religious use of wisdom

What is this grace of wisdom, and why is it so highly exalted?

1. Wisdom, as described in the Bible, is that eager desire of knowledge which rests unsatisfied so long as a corner of darkness is left unexplored; that passion for learning which, like the fleets of Solomon, penetrated into the furthermost regions of the then known world, and brought back from the furthermost shores the stores of natural history. A spirit of inquiry may, no doubt, become frivolous and useless. But that is not its heaven-born mission.

2. The religious idea of wisdom is the exercise of practical judgment and discretion; a wise and understanding heart to discern between good and bad; the capacity for justice, judgment, and equity. No doubt wisdom is not in itself goodness. The Proverbs are not the Psalms, Solomon was not David. But wisdom is next door to goodness, and religion leans upon her. How much mischief has been wrought because men have refused to acknowledge that common sense is a Christian grace. What a new aspect would be put upon the idleness, the selfishness, the extravagance of youth, if we could be taught to think not only of sinfulness, but of its contemptible folly, if we could be induced, not only to confess how often we were miserable sinners but also how often we have been miserable fools; what a great security for human welfare if we were to set ourselves not only to become better, but wiser, not only to gain holiness and virtue, but, as Solomon says, to get wisdom, get understanding; to pray that He who giveth liberally and upbraideth not, would in addition to His other blessings give us wisdom. (Dean Stanley.)

Culture and religion

By culture we mean that condition of the instructed and trained intellect which is the result of education, refinement, and large acquaintance with the facts of nature and history. By religion we understand that personal relation to the supreme King, and that character of moral and spiritual quality which for us is Christian, and depends upon faith in the Gospel as its spring, and obedience to the law of Jesus Christ as its directing and controlling force. The relations which these sides of human action may bear to each other can never be of slight importance. Some maintain that they are antagonistic. It is said the ages of faith are not the times of intelligence. Learning causes religion to dwindle. But history shows that the epochs of mans progress, when there is a larger force, and a more vigorous vitality, are marked by stimulus, not only to the intelligence and learning of the human mind, but also to the faith, and corresponding character of the human heart. Illustrate from the period of the revival of learning and letters. Was not this epoch also the revival of a truer faith? If learning was revived, surely also the Gospel of Jesus Christ found a new life. There was a further quickening of intellectual life in the eighteenth century. But was it not the age of Whitefield and Wesley? And what have we seen in our own time? We boast its intelligence. But it is the day of evangelism, and nowhere is such form of religious life more strong than in the centres of learning.

1. Religion is itself a means of mental discipline. One of the first objects of study which religion furnishes is the nature of the human soul itself. It is very difficult to mark the boundary where the philosophy of the mind is separated from the religion of the spirit. Religion is historic, and no man can rightly yield himself to the influence of religion without tracing the progress of Christian doctrine and the development of the Church. And what a history has been this ecclesiastical, this dogmatic history of two millenniums. This historical knowledge which religion furnishes leads us to that solitary figure whose shadow has been cast over every century since its appearance among men. Religion begins and ends with us with the knowledge of Jesus Christ. What object of human thought can afford such discipline, such inspiration, such directing, as His life and work? History is only the commentary on Christ. The events of every age only start from Him, and lead to Him again. We have left unto the last the greatest thought of all which religion presents. Whom do we worship? Whom do we seek? Who is the ultimate end of all Christian endeavour, all religious belief, all devout living? It is God--the Supreme, the Infinite, the necessary Being, source of all life, regulator of all movements, spring of all creation, the first, the last, the beginning and the end of universal being. No science can tulle us beyond the threshold of His abode. The relation of man to God includes the deep enigmas of sin and evil, the large speculation of freedom, necessity, responsibility, and law. It is no wonder that the philosophers of the schools called theology the Queen of the Sciences.

2. The other side of the relation which religion bears to mental cultivation, is that protective and medicative influence which it can exert, so as to guard against or remedy the evils, in peril of which an exclusively mental exercise always lies.

(1) Religion corrects the tendency of culture to ignore the limits of mans power. If the mind be concerned only with objects of nature, the facts and laws of the external world, and the purely phenomenal presentations of the human intellect itself, it is in great danger of not perceiving the lines beyond which its advance is absolutely barred.

(2) Another peril is the pride and self-valuation which mere intellectual cultivation sometimes occasions. This is a moral vice, a fault of character, an imperfection of the heart. The wise man must be humble. True learning is to learn what we cannot know. Faith, and worship, and adoring love forever keep the human heart in the ready and loyal acknowledgment of its God.

(3) Another peril is social, affecting the educated man as he is viewed in relation to his fellows. A learning that is nothing but intellectual tends to make us forget our brotherhood. There is nothing more selfish than culture. There is a scorn in learning of which every man lies in danger. The only corrective is religion. In her courts we stand upon a common ground. (L. D. Bevan, D. D.)

The search alter wisdom

The wisdom which man is concerned to acquire must be a wisdom which will stand him in stead throughout eternity.

I. The abstruseness and marvellousness of human discoveries. The natural philosopher is engaged in a search; and many of his discoveries are attended with very beneficial results to the world at large. Let us ascertain, then, whether he has discovered the pearl of price for which we seek. In the investigation of nature men display an energy and perseverance which is well worthy of a nobler cause. But there is no rest, no peace, no satisfaction in this quest. It is of its very nature to be restless.

II. There is an impassable limit which human discoveries cannot go beyond. The field of providence baffles us at the outset. Nature affords us no light whatever in solving the secrets of the Divine dispensations.

III. Whence cometh wisdom? Shall our search after it be always fruitless? The seat of wisdom is, was, and ever has been, the bosom of God. Of Him we must learn it, if we would learn it at all. His Word shall set every mind at rest., shaft disclose to us what that true wisdom is, which is the sphere of man, and in which we may acquiesce. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is the wisdom of wisdoms, the highest, the only true wisdom. (E. M. Goulburn, D. G. L.)

The inestimable value of true wisdom, or religion

A man without religion is not wise; not so wise as he ought to be; nor so wise as he could be. It is religion that teaches a man to act worthily towards different objects--to call them by their proper names. It is religion that teaches a man to take the greatest care with the most precious things. It is religion that teaches a man how to give the best time to the most important work. It is religion that teaches a man to strive most to win the approval of Him who has it in His power to do most it is religion, in a word, that fits a man to enter heaven. (David Roberts, D. D.)

The secret of wisdom

Why is wisdom so far harder to find than anything else? Why can man read every other riddle of nature except the one riddle that fascinates him? Nothing here can escape his scrutiny; nothing can bar his advance. Look at him, the chapter says, as he digs and mines and searches and sifts and purges the dross with fire, and gathers in the assorted wealth. Look at the track where he unearths his silver, and at the furnace where he refines his gold. And yet, in spite of all this practical supremacy, this masterful intimacy over nature, is he at all nearer to the discovery of her ultimate secret? Can he dig up the truth as he can a diamond? Can he buy it in the market for coral? Nay, what avail his pearls and rubies? Somehow the secret is ever eluding him. Just when men seem nearest to it, it slips from out of their clutch. Nature is forever suggesting it, yet forever concealing it. The sea, which had seemed to be murmuring it aloud in its dreams, now says, It is not in me; the depth, which had enticed us into its brooding wonder, now says, It is not with me. Somehow they all stop short. This is a path which no bird knows; the eye even of the vulture has never seen it; the wild beasts have never trodden it; the young lions pass not by that way; it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the air. So the Book confesses. Ah! how that ancient experience repeats itself in us today. Never was the contrast more vivid or more crushing than now between the astounding practical efficiency of our scientific handling of earths material treasures, and the futility of our search for the inner secret. Still, the spectacle of nature spreads out before us its intimate invitation to come and take possession; there is no recess that we may not penetrate; no height and depth that we cannot enter. It makes itself ours, and we feel ourselves its master. We stand amazed at our own supremacy. No obstacles defeat us, no perils terrify. Down into the deep bowels of the earth we sink our shafts; over all its seas we send our fleets; our furnaces blaze, and our factories roar. How dauntless our search; how sublime our capacity, our patience, our persistence! But one thing remains as far off, as elusive as ever. Upon one discovery we cannot lay our hand. There is a point where our mastery suddenly droops; our cunning fails us, and our courage and our self-confidence drop away from under us. We snatch at what we fancied to be the thing which we desired to find, and our fingers close on emptiness. Where is it gone? Why cannot we hold it--this wisdom, this spiritual secret, this reality of things? Ah, yes, why indeed? Did we suppose that we should come upon it, hid in some mine with the sapphires and the dust of gold? Did we hope to dig it up one day? Nay, not by any such road can we arrive at wisdom; not in that fashion is it captured. The spiritual purpose, the inner reality of things is of another kind. Not by faculties such as these that our practical efficiency brings into play shall we apprehend it--Seeing that it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the air. Practical skill, obviously, ludicrously fails us. But practical science, the science of experimental discovery, cannot that help us? It is our very organ of discovery: cannot it discover wisdom? Alas! Here, too, we find that the very exercise of those scientific faculties by which our astounding triumphs have been achieved excludes and banishes our chance of arriving by these methods at the secret of reality. The more we know that way, the less we arrive. The spread of our science, in which we have shown ourselves so masterful, so victorious, is won at the cost of intellectual limitations which prohibit our apprehension of the one thing that we desire to know. Science has carried us further off from the secret than we were before we were scientific. It has made more evident how elusive that secret is. We stare hopelessly out at stars so remote that the light which can travel ninety-three millions of miles to the sun in eight minutes takes hours and days and years even to arrive. And far beyond those stars again a million others spread away in swarms of tangled haze. Where are we in such a universe? What is man? How can he count? What intercourse can hold between him, in his terrible minute insignificance, and it in its unimaginable vastness? How dare he thrust himself in with all his ludicrous emotions, and his absurd desires? What does that vast world know of him in its icy aloofness; there, in that unplumbed and immeasurable abyss? Back we sink to look within; but is it more hopeful, our in-look there? The dear familiar face of the earth has disappeared under the siftings of physical science. And what frightens us is that all this mechanical universe into which we are scientifically introduced omits us, ignores us, goes on without us. That which is our real life,--our thought, our will, our imagination, our affection, our passion, these cannot find themselves there; they cannot be expressed in terms of mechanism. Practical science says, It is not in me; organised science says, It is not in me. Where shall wisdom be found; is there any other road of search? Where is there a better promise of arrival? Well, there is an offer, which I think carries us a long way nearer than physical science. It is that of art. In the creative impulse, in the imaginative emotion kindled at the sight or sound of beauty, we have that which seems to open the door into the secret of existence, into the mind with which nature was made. Nature explains itself to us best as a majestic spectacle, as a living effort that finds its joy in being what it is. That is what all nature cries to us. Life teems, life dances, life sings: it is a glory just to be alive. Is not that the truth at which the sons of God shouted in the first morning of creation? The earth was so superb a fact; it stood as a picture; it grew like a poem, and it moved like music. God found His joy in flinging out His power in all this radiant majesty; He loved it for being alive, for being the expression of His love. And that joy of God in sheer existence passed into all things to become their soul. We need not inquire here for what ulterior end they were made, or what use they serve. It is so difficult to discern what will come of it all. But why ask? Enough that they are what they are. To live is to suffice; to live is to be intelligible; to live is to be justified. If only the world is content to rejoice in being what it is, it has attained. Oh, all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord! Praise Him and magnify Him forever. This cry of praise can sweep in so much that otherwise might perplex or distress us in the making of the world. Its hardships, its trials, its sufferings, may yet pass into the great hymn. Fire and hail, though they burn and break, yet are what they are, and as such, even as we suffer under them, we are glad to praise the Lord and magnify Him forever. The poet, the musician can suggest to us how the deeper pains of the great human tragedy may take a new meaning under the glamour of art, and can yield, under the pressure of high imagination, a sweeter, richer mystery of joy. Yes, in the passion of the artist we are close upon our secret, we are knocking at the door, as it were. Yet who can dare rest satisfied with that solution; who will stop there? Indignantly our hearts repudiate it. We cannot be as those who, like Goethe, could regard the universe as the material for a work of art. Music, poetry, may indeed, be able to suggest to us that sorrow and love and death are not all in vain; they may wring a bittersweet joy out of hardness. And yet, and yet, we dare not go round London streets today and say, Be comforted; you are part of the eternal tragedy; you lend pathos to the human drama. Your sorrows rise into songs, your woes are gathered up into the great orchestral symphony of time. Men and women are so far more interesting when they suffer than when they succeed. If only you could see and feel it, your trouble leads to the final peace, even as the discords in a piece of musical development that crash so harshly on the ear are essential to the perfect close into which they gently resolve themselves. No, that will not do; that cannot be our Gospel for the poor and the heavy laden. Where, then, shall it be found? Where, really, is the place of understanding? What is our last word? Is it not the same as that which is given in the Book of Job? The fear of the Lord--that is wisdom; to depart from evil--that is understanding. The moral life holds for us the central secret of reality. The moral life is our act of communion with the power that is at the heart of things. In it we arrive; by it we get home. A hundred problems may lie around us unsolved; we may have to walk in blindness amid a world that we can make nothing of. We may be utterly unable to account for the origin of things, or to interpret their purpose, or to foresee their end. But for all this we can afford to wait; for, deep at the core of our being we have that in us which holds us fast shut within the very light of life, within the very eternity of God. His will--that will in which the worlds move and are in being--closes round our will; His love--that love which is the fount of all creation and the end of all desire--folds itself about our little trembling flame of love. We are His; He is ours. Surrendered to the law of His life we are at peace within the very secret of all secrets. Some day we shall know and see and understand. Then the amazing purpose will unveil itself, and we shall sing our Hallelujah, Amen. But enough if now, blind though we be, and impotent and staggered, we yet can be aware that He, whom we possess, and who desires us, is Himself the sole supreme reality of all that exists, that He is Lord and God of all, that He will at last be all in all. By surrender to Him, by obedience to Him in His fear, lies our only present wisdom--a wisdom which holds in it the promise and the pledge of all other wisdom that can be. This is the mystery of the conscience, of the will, of the heart, of the fear of the Lord. Through it, and through it alone, can man make good his entry within the veil, within the light. This faith in the moral law is being sorely tried today, just because the vast disclosures of science seem to carry us further and further away from a world in which moral purposes prevail. The world of infinite mechanism which is opened out to us, reaching far away into appalling distances beyond our power even to imagine, at work within in a minuteness of scale which paralyses our reason, wears the air of something altogether non-moral. There seems to be no bond that holds between it and our purposes and convictions. Where are we? What significance have we? What importance dare we attribute to our tiny actions? Ah! how difficult to uphold our belief that all these rolling suns are as mere dust in the balance over against a Commandment pronouncing, Thou shalt, Thou shalt not. They cannot be weighed against a sin. The soul has that in it which outweighs them all. How difficult; yet that is our faith. The fear of the Lord, we say, that is wisdom. Can we hold it fast? Will we live and die in it? Will we utter it aloud, and stand by it in the face of all the million suns? No; the guidance, the assurance that we need must be strong, decided, masterful, absolute, if it is to bear up against the terrible counter pressure. A voice must speak which never wavers, a voice which holds in it the very sound of authority, a voice which cannot be gainsaid. And therefore, to supply this authoritative momentum, a Babe has been born into the world, through whom such an appeal as that can reach us, He will live and He will die to verify the fear of the Lord as mans one and only wisdom. Through His lips man may know, with a certainty which no counter-experience can ever shake, that it is worth while to lose the whole world, if only he can save his soul; truth and righteousness and purity are the sole treasure that he can lay up for himself in Heaven--that he had better pluck out his right eye than gain through it a lustful pleasure--that he had better be drowned with a millstone round his neck in the depths of the sea than do a hurt to the least of Gods little ones. In the sweat of blood, in the sacrifice of the Cross, He will exhibit the unconquerable splendour of the dedicated will at the price of all that life can offer. And, moreover, He who asserts that supremacy of the moral interest is one who, by His very nature, proclaims that man, concentrating himself upon this unique moral interest, and letting all go on its behoof, finds himself one with the eternal reality of things, one with the ultimate life, one with the Father of all flesh; for He who so dies to all but the moral command is Himself the One in whom God sums up all creation. You are not, therefore, asked to despise or to condemn the wonderful world disclosed by science or revealed by art; you are not asked to think little of that vast universe, with its rolling spheres, because there is set before you, here on earth, this sole and supreme purpose--to fear God and to hate evil. For in this moral issue lies the secret of the entire sum of things; and the pure will of Jesus is the will on which all existence is framed. Win there, and you will win everywhere; win there in the moral struggle, and behold, All things are yours, things in heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth. All, all at last will be yours! you hold the secret of power--For you are Christs, and Christ is Gods. But., remember, you must win there or you are lost, whatever else you may win. That is our Gospel. And here in this arena there is no one who, in Christ, may not win. Your life may become a victory. Yes; even for you, who feel, perhaps, so terribly beaten by the pressure of a hard world. (Canon Scott Holland.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 28:12. But where shall wisdom be found? — I confess that man hath one kind of wisdom, and that in a great degree, namely, to discover the works of nature, and to perform the operations of art; but as for that sublime and eminent wisdom which consists in the perfect knowledge of all God’s counsels and ways, and of the reasons of the dispensations of his providence toward good and bad men, this is far above man’s reach, and is the prerogative of God alone. Nay, and that wisdom which consists in the true and saving knowledge of God and ourselves, no man can attain but by the special gift of God.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

In Job 28:12-28, wisdom and understanding are spoken of as if they were precious objects that are in some place and people want to find them. Finding wisdom and understanding represents becoming wise and learning to understand things well. (See: Metaphor)

Where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?

These questions mean the same thing and are used to show that it is very difficult to find wisdom and understanding. AT: "It is very difficult to find wisdom and understanding." (See: Parallelism and Rhetorical Question)

Where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding

Becoming wise and understanding is spoken of as finding wisdom and understanding. AT: "How do people become wise? How do people learn to understand things well" (See: Metaphor)

Man does not know its price

Possible meanings are 1) wisdom is spoken of as if it were something that people can buy. AT: "People do not know what it is worth" or 2) the word translated as "price" means "place." AT: "People do not know where it is" (See: Metaphor)

neither is it found in the land of the living

"and it is not found in the land of the living." The "land of the living" refers to this world where people live. This can be stated in active form. AT: "and no one can find wisdom in this world" (See: Active or Passive)

The deep waters ... say, 'It is not in me'; the sea says, 'It is not with me.'

The deep waters and the sea are presented as if they are people that can speak. AT: "Wisdom is not in the deep waters under the earth, nor is it in the sea" (See: Personification)

translationWords

wise

understand

life

water

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Though God’s power and wisdom may be understood in earthly things, yet his heavenly wisdom cannot be attained unto.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 12. But where shall wisdom be found?] It is most evident that the terms wisdom and understanding are used here in a widely different sense from all those arts and sciences which have their relation to man in his animal and social state, and from all that reason and intellect by which man is distinguished from all other animals. Now as these terms חכמה chochmah, wisdom, and בינה binah, understanding or discernment, are often applied in the sacred writings in their common acceptations, we must have recourse to what Job says of them, to know their meaning in this place. In Job 28:28, he says, The fear of the Lord is WISDOM, and to depart from evil is UNDERSTANDING. We know that the fear of the Lord is often taken for the whole of that religious reverence and holy obedience which God prescribes to man in his word, and which man owes to his Maker. Hence the Septuagint render חכמה chochmah, wisdom, by θεοσεβια, Divine worship; and as to a departure from evil, that is necessarily implied in a religious life, but it is here properly distinguished, that no man might suppose that a right faith, and a proper performance of the rites of religious worship, is the whole of religion. No. They must not only worship God in the letter, but also in the spirit; they must not only have the form, but also the power of godliness: and this will lead them to worship God in spirit and truth, to walk in his testimonies, and abstain from every appearance of evil; hence they will be truly happy: so that wisdom is another word for happiness. Now these are things which man by study and searching could never find out; they are not of an earthly origin. The spirit of a man, human understanding, may know the things of a man-those which concern him in his animal and social state: but the Spirit of God alone knows the things of God; and therefore WISDOM-all true religion-must come by Divine revelation, which is the mode of its attainment. Wisdom finds out the thing, and understanding uses and applies the means; and then the great end is obtained.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(12) But where shall wisdom be found?—With magnificent effect comes in this question, after the gigantic achievements of man just recounted; notwithstanding his industry, science, and skill, he is altogether ignorant of true wisdom. Neither his knowledge nor his wealth can make him master of that; nor can he find it where he discovers so many other secret and precious things.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12–14. The precious ores and costly stones though hidden have a place where they may be found, and man knows how to reach it and bring that which is hid to light, but where can Wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? It has no place and is unattainable by man; it is not to be found in the land of the living, in the deep nor in the sea.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But where shall wisdom be found?.... Though there is a vein for silver, a track where that lies, and is to be come at, and a place where gold is found, and where it may be refined, and parts of the earth, out of which brass and iron, and bread corn, may be produced, and even from whence may be fetched brilliant gems and precious stones; which, though attended with many difficulties, in cutting through rocks, draining rivers, and restraining the waters, yet are got over through the art and skill, industry, diligence, and labour of men; so that their eyes behold every precious thing their minds desire, and they bring to light what have been laid up in darkness from the creation of the world: but, though these things may be found by search and labour, the question is, what vein is there for wisdom, or where is the place in which that may be found? by which may be meant the wisdom of God, as a perfection in him; which, though displayed in some measure in the works of creation and providence, yet not completely, and especially in his dealings with the children of men; in all which there is undoubtedly the wisdom of God; yet it is such a depth as is unfathomable by mortals: such are God's dealings with men in a way of distinguishing grace and mercy, as that he should take no notice of any of the whole body of apostate angels that sinned against him, but doomed them all to destruction; and yet there should be a philanthropy, a love of men in him, and such as to give his Son to die for them, and redeem them from ruin and destruction; also that he should make a difference among men, and ordain some to eternal life, while others are foreordained to condemnation and death, when all were in the same situation, condition, and circumstances; and such likewise were his dealings with the Israelites, and other nations of the world, part of which Job was not a stranger to; as his choosing them to be his peculiar people before all others, and bestowing peculiar favours upon them, not because they were more in quantity, or better in quality, but because this was his pleasure; when he suffered all other nations to walk in their own ways, for many hundreds of years, and winked at the times of their ignorance; and yet, after a long course of time, rejected the people of the Jews, and wrote a "loammi", or "not my people", Hos 1:9, on them, and took out from the Gentiles a people for his name; so that they, who were not a people, were called the people of God, and the Jews were broken off, and the Gentiles grafted in; and when the fulness of them is brought in, there will be a turn again, and then all Israel shall be saved: upon all which the apostle breaks out in this exclamation, which may serve as a comment on this text, "oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Rom 11:33; particularly here may be meant the wisdom of God in his dealings with men, good and bad, in afflicting good men, and in suffering the wicked to prosper: this is a fact Job had fully proved, and it cannot be denied; and there is, no doubt, much of the wisdom of God herein; he does all things well and wisely; as he cannot do an unjust thing, so neither an unwise one; though his wisdom is unsearchable, his judgments are a great deep, and not to be fathomed by men, not only not by weak men and wicked men, but even by the wisest and best of men, as Asaph and Jeremiah: and this being the case, Job suggests to his friends, that the dealings of God with him, and the reasons of them, and his wisdom in them, were not to be searched out by them; and that they should forbear imputing his afflictions to hypocrisy, or to secret sins indulged by him; but to leave all, without making rash censures and wrong constructions, until the time should come when the judgments of God should be made manifest; such wisdom and knowledge, as to account for God's different dealings with men, being too wonderful, too high to attain unto, and quite out of their reach. The Jews, as particularly Jarchi, understand by wisdom the law, not to be found in the depth or in the sea; and illustrate the words by Deu 30:11; but it is much better to interpret it of the Gospel, to which the apostle applies the above passage, Rom 10:6; in which there is a glorious display of the wisdom of God, in all the truths and doctrines of it; that it is a mysterious wisdom, hidden wisdom, hid from the wise and prudent, and not to be attained unto by the light nature and carnal reason; it contains the deep things of God, which the Spirit of God alone searches and reveals; but why may not Christ, the Wisdom of God, be thought of? since many things are said in the following verses, as are of Wisdom, as a divine Person, in Pro 8:13; in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid, and on whom the spirit of wisdom and counsel rests, as Mediator; and who, as a divine Person, is the only wise God, and our Saviour: and to this question in Job's time, "where shall wisdom be found?" the only answer to be given is, that he, the Logos, or Wisdom, was with God, as one brought up with him, rejoicing always before him and that he lay in his bosom, Pro 8:30; and to the same question in our time it must be returned, that he is in heaven at the right hand of God; but that there is no coming at the true knowledge of him by the light of nature, or by the law of Moses, but by means of the Gospel, and through the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The first of these senses, respecting the wisdom of God in his different dealings with men, good and bad, is most generally given into by interpreters, and seems to suit well with the preceding dispute between Job and his friends: but if we look forward in the chapter, we shall find this question repeated, and an answer given to it as in the negative, so in the affirmative, that God knows the place of it; that he has searched it out, seen it, and declared it; and it is this, "the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding", Job 28:20; by which it should seem, that this wisdom is supernatural wisdom, or understanding in men; which lies in the fear of God, and the effects of it; in a spiritual knowledge of God and Christ, or of God in Christ; and in that godliness which is profitable in all things; and in that wisdom which comes from above, and is opposed to that which is earthly, sensual, and devilish, and is not to be found in carnal hearts, nor its worth known by carnal men, nor to be obtained by any thing in nature ever so valuable, but is the gift of God, the wisdom he makes men to know, in the hidden part, Psa 51:6;

and where is the place of understanding? to attain to the understanding of the mysteries of Providence, or of Christ, or of the Gospel; or to have a spiritual understanding of divine things, and experience of them, which only is the gift of God, Jo1 5:20; for, by wisdom and understanding are meant one and the same, as they often are, whether understood as a thing or person; see Pro 1:2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

But where shall wisdom be found? - That is, the full understanding of the plans of God - for this is the point of inquiry. The object of Job is to show that it is not to be found in the most profound science; by penetrating to the farthest extent of which man was capable in the earth, nor by any human investigations whatever. None of these things revealed the great plans of the Almighty in reference to his moral government, and particularly to the points which engrossed the attention of Job and his friends. Where true wisdom is to be found he proceeds to state in the subsequent verses.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Understanding, of supernatural things, which teaches us to love God, and to comprehend his counsels. This is very different from the human sagacity of which he has been speaking; and this is the gift of God alone. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Wisdom, Heb. that wisdom; for here is an article which seems to be emphatical. The sense is, I confess that man hath one kind of wisdom in a great measure, to wit, to discover the works of nature, and to perform the operations of art; but as for that sublime and eminent wisdom, which consists in the exact knowledge of all God’s counsels and ways, and of the several manners and reasons of his governing the world, and dealing with good and bad men, this is far above man’s reach, and is the prerogative of God alone.

Where is the place of understanding? there is no vein for that upon the earth, as there is for gold or silver.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Wisdom — החכמה, is a word of varied and comprehensive import. It includes both intellectual and moral qualities; either, as they exist (concretely) in the mind of God or other moral agent, or as they are brought to light (abstractly) either by His action or that of some other being. In other words, it may mean either the divine idea or archetype according to which God works, or high intelligent action itself, involving upright conduct. It also means pure creative Intelligence, (hhokmah,) answering to the Logos of the New Testament. Here Wisdom is used with the article, and personified: — darkly mysterious, of worth inestimable, perfect in all its works, infinitely to be desired by man; a Divine Conception and yet distinct from God, (Job_28:27, it may prefigure the incarnate Being who is “made unto us wisdom and righteousness.” Nature, as revealed wisdom of God, incomplete and unsatisfying, carries within herself an embryonic prediction that in the fulness of time there should be a fuller disclosure made of divinely hidden wisdom. The boasted Pindar, of the classics, fails in his tribute to wisdom when compared with Job: —

“How can’st thou hope true wisdom’s to be found,

Wherein so little man surpasses man?

For it can never be that minds,

Of mortal woman born,

Can trace the counsels of Deity.”

— Fragment x, (Dissen.)

Compare the apocryphal Book of Wisdom, chapters 7-9.

Understanding — בינה, is rendered by the Germans, einsicht, insight. Its root idea, “to divide,” “to separate,” is the same as that of hhokmah, (wisdom,) and they are used interchangeably. The former, (binah,) according to Delitzsch, is the faculty of seeing through that which is distinguishable consisting of the possession of the right criteria; while the latter, (hhokmah,) is the perception, in general, of things in their true nature and their final causes.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 12-28. Here we come on an abrupt change. From human ingenuity and contrivance Job turns to the consideration of "wisdom that wisdom which has been defined as "the reason which deals with principles "(Canon Cook). "Where," he asks, "is this to be found?" It is a wholly different thing from cleverness and ingenuity. It inquires into causes and origins, into the ends and purposes of things; it seeks to solve the riddle of the universe. Perfect wisdom can, of course, only dwell with God (ver. 23). Man must be content with something much below this. With him "the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding" (ver. 28).

But where shall wisdom be found? "Wisdom is the principal thing," says Solomon; (Pro_4:7) and again, "It is better to get wisdom than gold". (Pro_16:16) But where is it to be found? Job"s three friends thought that it dwelt with them; (Job_12:2) but this was a mistake, since God reproaches them with their "folly". (Job_42:8) Job does not claim to possess it; (Job_26:3) he only desires it. It is his deep conviction that it is only possessed, in the true sense of the word, by God. And where is the place of understanding? It is not quite clear whether Job intends to make any distinction between "wisdom" (hmkj) and "understanding" (hnyb). Canon Cook suggests that "wisdom" is "the reason which deals with principles," and "understanding" "the faculty which discerns and appreciates their application." But refined distinctions of this kind are scarcely suitable to the age of Job. Dean Plumptre, in his comment on Proverbs ("Speaker"s Commentary," vol. 4. p. 529), accepts the distinction implied in the Septuagint translation of that book, which renders hmkj by sofia and hnyb by fronhsiv . This is a much simpler and more easily understood distinction, being that which separates between scientific know. ledge and the practical intelligence which directs conduct. But it may be doubted whether Job does not use the two words as synonyms.

Vers. 12-15. The search for wisdom.

I WISDOM IS SUPREMELY DESIRABLE. Men sink shafts and traverse hazardous paths in search of the precious metals simply because of their value. The costly and difficult processes of mining would not be carried on unless an adequate reward were expected. Unless men appreciate wisdom they will not take much trouble in attempting to acquire it. The first thing is to see that "the price of wisdom is above rubies" (ver. 18). Knowledge is good, as the food of the intellect. The knowledge of God is most precious as the food of the soul. Practical knowledge is essential for guidance in life. Wisdom is more than the satisfaction of curiosity; it is the light of life.

II WISDOM DOES NOT LIE ON THE SURFACE OF THE WORLD. It is like the treasures of deep rallies, and therefore it is not seen by the superficial. God does not cast his pearls before swine. There are blessings that all men even the most heedless have a share in. But the greatest blessings are not stumbled on unawares. These are for all who will seek them; but they must be sought. Hidden treasures are sometimes dug up from beneath ancient ruins vessels of gold and silver that have lain for ages buried under heaps of rubbish. So Divine treasures have been hidden beneath piles of earthly and comparatively worthless things. Sin and worldliness have buried them. They need to be rediscovered. Thus man has both to recover lost spiritual riches and to mine in virgin soil for new wisdom.

III WISDOM IS NOT EASILY FOUND. It is not enough to sink a mine, for perhaps we may not strike a lode; we must discover where the precious metal lies. The mining engineer must bring his science and experience to bear on the great problem as to where the shaft is to be made, and if he makes a mistake all the costly work of preparing the mine will be thrown away. Now, we want some divining-rod to show us where to seek for the Divine wisdom. Philosophers have dug their mines in various regions of life and thought. No doubt they have brought much precious ore to the surface. But the great treasure of Divine knowledge has not been struck by any human inquiry without the guiding of a special heavenly revelation. Seas may be dredged and strange wonders of the deep brought to light, but these additions to natural history do not help us much in coming to know spiritual truth.

IV WISDOM CANNOT BE BOUGHT. Precious stones may be purchased for money. Knowledge may be obtained in classes for which fees are charged; and yet the fees cannot purchase real education, and unless the scholar uses his mind he cannot profit by his lessons. No subscriptions to churches and missions and charities can buy Divine wisdom.

V WISDOM IS A DIVINE GIFT SEEKING SOULS. It is like the precious metals in the earth which God has given to man freely. The treasures of God are for all, without money and without price. Moreover, God shows us where to find these treasures. Christ "is made unto us wisdom". (1Co_1:30) When we receive Christ, we have the Treasure for which philosophers and.saints toiled and mined. He brings the Divine wisdom to the surface, to cur very doors. If we would acquire wisdom, we have but to open our hearts to welcome Christ. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

God Alone The Possessor of True Wisdom.

Over against man’s foolish quest for vain and unstable riches Job places the wisdom of God, unattainable by the outward seeking and searching of men.

v. 12. But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? True wisdom, the understanding of God, the knowledge of the revelation of God, is the highest good of man.

v. 13. Man knoweth not the price thereof, no mortal realizes its value for purchase or exchange; neither is it found in the land of the living, on the earth as inhabited by men, as a product of their labor.

v. 14. The depth, the abyss of waters beneath the earth, saith, It is not in me; and the sea, the great and mighty ocean, saith, It is not with me.

v. 15. It cannot be gotten for gold, the purest gold cannot be given in exchange for it, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.

v. 16. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the finest gold known to the ancients, with the precious onyx or the sapphire, both of which were valued very highly in the Orient.

v. 17. The gold and the crystal, glass, upon which at that time a very high valuation was placed, whether it was natural or artificial, cannot equal it, and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold, they simply could not be considered as equivalent to it.

v. 18. No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, that is, corals and quartz-crystal could not even be named in comparison with it; for the price of wisdom is above rubies, it is immeasurably exalted in value over the most precious treasures of men.

v. 19. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold, that which has gone through the most careful process of refining. Job exhausts all comparisons which men would suggest in trying to obtain a fair valuation of the rich treasure of which he speaks.

v. 20. Whence, then, cometh wisdom, and where is the place of understanding? The same question is propounded again in order to drive home the truth about to be stated.

v. 21. Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, the creatures of the earth endowed with senses, and kept close from the fowls of the air, even from the sharp-sighted winged tribe.

v. 22. Destruction and death, the realm of the dead and the place reserved for the wicked, say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears, they knew of it only by hearsay, they had no personal acquaintance with it.

v. 23. God understandeth the way thereof, He alone is familiar with true wisdom, and He knoweth the place thereof, He knows exactly where it may be found.

v. 24. For He looketh to the ends of the earth and seeth under the whole heaven, nothing is hidden from His wisdom and omniscience,

v. 25. to make the weight for the winds; and He weigheth the waters by measure, they are entirely under His direction and government.

v. 26. When He made a decree for the rain, appointing to it when and how often it should fall, and a way for the lightning of the thunder, a path for the thunder-flash through the clouds, all these phenomena being regulated by Him,

v. 27. then, when He exercised His creative and providential power, did He see it and declare it, He unfolded and set forth before men some of the evidences of eternal wisdom; He prepared it, yea, and searched it out, establishing its foundation throughout nature, making everything subject to the laws of His wisdom.

v. 28. And unto man He said, singling him out for this revelation, as the highest creature of His almighty power, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, to know Him and to reverence Him as the one true God is the sum of all wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. To forsake the evil, as being utterly contrary to God, His essence and His will, and to live in accordance with the demands of His holiness, that is the highest form of wisdom. This wisdom can be attained to through the knowledge of Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind, for by faith in Him all believers are brought into that communion with God which will reveal to them the fulness of His wisdom and give them the strength to do His will.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But wisdom i.e., Torah.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.