1“Surely there is a mine for silver
2Iron is taken from the earth,
3Man puts an end to the darkness;
4Far from human habitation he cuts a shaft
5Food may come from the earth,
6Its rocks are the source of sapphires,
7No bird of prey knows that path;
8Proud beasts have never trodden it;
9The miner strikes the flint;
10He hews out channels in the rocks,
11He stops up 28:11 Hebrew; LXX and Vulgate He searches the sources of the streams
12But where can wisdom be found,
13No man can know its value,
14The ocean depths say, ‘It is not in me,’
15It cannot be bought with gold,
16It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
17Neither gold nor crystal can compare to it,
18Coral and quartz are unworthy of mention;
19Topaz from Cush 28:19 That is, the upper Nile region cannot compare to it,
20From where then does wisdom come,
21It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing
22Abaddon 28:22 Abaddon means Destruction. and Death say,
23But God understands its way,
24For He looks to the ends of the earth
25When God fixed the weight of the wind
26when He set a limit for the rain
27then He looked at wisdom and appraised it;
28And He said to man, ‘Behold,