Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, April 29th, 2025
the Second Week after Easter
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Contemporary English Version

Job 28:23

God is the only one who knows the way to wisdom,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - God;   Readings, Select;   Wisdom;   Thompson Chain Reference - Call, Divine;   God's;   Wisdom;   Wisdom-Folly;   The Topic Concordance - Hiding;   Knowledge;   Wisdom;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Measures;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Wisdom literature;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Colossians, Theology of;   Understanding;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Wise, Wisdom;   Holman Bible Dictionary - God;   Job, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Mining and Metals;   Wisdom;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Winter ;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Foreknow;   Logos;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
But God understands the way to wisdom,and he knows its location.
Hebrew Names Version
"God understands its way, And he knows its place.
King James Version
God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
English Standard Version
"God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.
New Century Version
Only God understands the way to wisdom, and he alone knows where it lives,
New English Translation
God understands the way to it, and he alone knows its place.
Amplified Bible
"God understands the way [to wisdom] And He knows its place [for wisdom is with God alone].
New American Standard Bible
"God understands its way, And He knows its place.
World English Bible
"God understands its way, And he knows its place.
Geneva Bible (1587)
But God vnderstandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
Legacy Standard Bible
"God understands its way,And He knows its place.
Berean Standard Bible
But God understands its way, and He knows its place.
Complete Jewish Bible
"God understands its way, and he knows its place.
Darby Translation
God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth its place:
Easy-to-Read Version
"Only God knows the way to wisdom. Only he knows where wisdom is.
George Lamsa Translation
Because only God understands the way of it, and he knows the place thereof.
Good News Translation
God alone knows the way, Knows the place where wisdom is found,
Lexham English Bible
"God understands its way, and he knows its place,
Literal Translation
God knows its way, and He knows its place.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But God seyth hir waie, & knoweth hir place.
American Standard Version
God understandeth the way thereof, And he knoweth the place thereof.
Bible in Basic English
God has knowledge of the way to it, and of its resting-place;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof.
King James Version (1611)
God vnderstandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
But God seeth her way, and knoweth her place.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
God has well ordered the way of it, and he knows the place of it.
English Revised Version
God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
God vndurstondith the weye therof, and he knowith the place therof.
Update Bible Version
God understands the way thereof, And he knows the place thereof.
Webster's Bible Translation
God understandeth the way of it, and he knoweth its place.
New King James Version
God understands its way, And He knows its place.
New Living Translation
"God alone understands the way to wisdom; he knows where it can be found,
New Life Bible
"God understands the way to wisdom, and He knows its place.
New Revised Standard
"God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
GOD, understandeth the way thereof, and, he, discerneth the place thereof;
Douay-Rheims Bible
God understandeth the way of it, and he knoweth the place thereof.
Revised Standard Version
"God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.
Young's Literal Translation
God hath understood its way, And He hath known its place.
THE MESSAGE
"God alone knows the way to Wisdom, he knows the exact place to find it. He knows where everything is on earth, he sees everything under heaven. After he commanded the winds to blow and measured out the waters, Arranged for the rain and set off explosions of thunder and lightning, He focused on Wisdom, made sure it was all set and tested and ready. Then he addressed the human race: ‘Here it is! Fear-of-the-Lord—that's Wisdom, and Insight means shunning evil.'"
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"God understands its way, And He knows its place.

Contextual Overview

20 Where then is wisdom? 21 It is hidden from human eyes and even from birds. 22 Death and destruction have merely heard rumors about where it is found. 23 God is the only one who knows the way to wisdom, 24 because he sees everything beneath the heavens. 25 When God divided out the wind and the water, 26 and when he decided the path for rain and lightning, 27 he also determined the truth and defined wisdom. 28 God told us, "Wisdom means that you respect me, the Lord, and turn from sin."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Psalms 19:7, Psalms 147:5, Proverbs 2:6, Proverbs 8:14, Matthew 11:27, Luke 10:21, Luke 10:22, Acts 15:18, Romans 11:33, 1 Corinthians 1:30, Jude 1:25

Reciprocal: James 3:17 - the wisdom

Gill's Notes on the Bible

God understandeth the way thereof,.... And he only; not the way that men can come at the knowledge of wisdom, which at present appears to be past finding out; but rather the way which wisdom itself takes, and is in the deep, and its footsteps not known by any other, and the grounds and reasons of its taking such a course it does; which are only understood by the Lord: it may be applied to spiritual wisdom in men, and the way to come at it; which God only knows and instructs in, and is his special and peculiar gift; and to Christ, the wisdom of God, and the way which he has taken in the council and covenant of grace and peace, for the salvation of his people; and which he took in time, in the assumption of human nature, and by sufferings and death to obtain it for them:

and he knoweth the place thereof; the seat of wisdom within himself, the source of all his dealings with men, his sovereign will and pleasure in his own heart; the place of spiritual wisdom and knowledge, the heart of a regenerate man, where his Gospel is, and has come with power, and took place and works effectually; and where Christ, the Logos, the Wisdom of God is, even with himself, and in his bosom, as in the times of Job, and now at his right hand, in human nature.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

God understandeth the way thereof - These are doubtless the words of Job. The meaning is, that the reason of the divine dispensations could be known only to God himself. He had given no clew by which man could discover this. He might carry his investigations far into the regions of science; he could penetrate the earth, and look on the stars, but still all his investigations fell short of disclosing the reasons of the divine dispensations. The secret was lodged in his bosom, and he only could communicate it where and when he pleased. It may be added here, that this is as true now as it was in the time of Job. Man has carried the investigations of science almost infinitely further than he had then, but still by the investigations of science he has by no means superseded the necessity of revelation, or shed light on the great questions that have, in all ages, so much perplexed the race. It is only by direct communication, by his word and by his Spirit, that man can be made to understand the reason of the divine doings, and nothing is better established by the course of events than the truth on which Job here so much insists, that science cannot answer the questions of so much interest to man about the divine government.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 28:23. God understandeth the way thereof — It can only be taught by a revelation from himself. Instead of הבין hebin, understandeth, six MSS. have הכין hechin, disposed or established. This reading is also supported by the Septuagint; Ὁ Θεος ευ συνεστησεν αυτης ὁδον, "God hath well established her way:" falsely rendered bene cognovit, hath well known, in the Latin version of the Septuagint in the London Polyglot; but bene constituit, hath well established, in the Complutensian, Antwerp, and Paris Polyglots.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile