¹ “Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.

² Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore.

³ Man puts an end to the darkness; he probes the farthest recesses for ore in deepest darkness.

⁴ Far from human habitation he cuts a shaft in places forgotten by the foot of man. Far from men he dangles and sways.

⁵ Food may come from the earth, but from below it is transformed as by fire.

⁶ Its rocks are the source of sapphires, containing flecks of gold.

⁷ No bird of prey knows that path; no falcon’s eye has seen it.

⁸ Proud beasts have never trodden it; no lion has ever prowled over it.

⁹ The miner strikes the flint; he overturns mountains at their base.

¹⁰ He hews out channels in the rocks, and his eyes spot every treasure.

¹¹ He stops up¹ the sources of the streams to bring what is hidden to light.

1. Hebrew; LXX and Vulgate He searches

¹² But where can wisdom be found, and where does understanding dwell?

¹³ No man can know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.

¹⁴ The ocean depths say, ‘It is not in me,’ while the sea declares, ‘It is not with me.’

¹⁵ It cannot be bought with gold, nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

¹⁶ It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire.

¹⁷ Neither gold nor crystal can compare to it, nor jewels of fine gold be exchanged for it.

¹⁸ Coral and quartz are unworthy of mention; the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.

¹⁹ Topaz from Cush¹ cannot compare to it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.

1. That is, the upper Nile region

²⁰ From where then does wisdom come, and where does understanding dwell?

²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the air.

²² Abaddon¹ and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor about it.’

1. Abaddon means Destruction.

²³ But God understands its way, and He knows its place.

²⁴ For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵ When God fixed the weight of the wind and measured out the waters,

²⁶ when He set a limit for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt,

²⁷ then He looked at wisdom and appraised it; He established it and searched it out.

²⁸ And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”