the Week of Proper 24 / Ordinary 29
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King James Version
Job 28:12
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- DailyParallel Translations
"But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding?
But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
"But where can wisdom be found, and where does understanding live?
"But wisdom—where can it be found? Where is the place of understanding?
But where shall wisdom be found? and where [is] the place of understanding?
"But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?
"But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
"But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
But where is wisdom foundun, and which is the place of vndurstondyng?
But where can wisdom be found, and where does understanding dwell?
But where is wisdom found?
But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
But where may wisdom be seen? and where is the resting-place of knowledge?
"But where can wisdom be found? Where is the source of understanding?
But wisdom, where shall it be found? and where is the place of understanding?
"But where can anyone find wisdom? Where can we get understanding?
But wisdom, where shall it be found? And where is the place of understanding?
But where shall wisedome bee found? And where is the place of vnderstanding?
"But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
"But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
But where is wisdome found? and where is the place of vnderstanding?
But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding thereof?
But where can wisdom be found? Where can we learn to understand?
Yet where can, Wisdom, be found? And where is the place of understanding?
But where is wisdom to be found, and where is the place of understanding?
"But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
Where then is wysdome founde? and where is the place of vnderstanding?
But whence has wisdom been discovered? and what is the place of knowledge?
But where can wisdom be found,and where is understanding located?
"But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?
"But from where will wisdom be found? And where in the world is the place of understanding?
But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
And the wisdom -- whence is it found? And where [is] this, the place of understanding?
How commeth a man then by wy?dome? Where is the place that men fynde vnderstondinge?
"But where, oh where, will they find Wisdom? Where does Insight hide? Mortals don't have a clue, haven't the slightest idea where to look. Earth's depths say, ‘It's not here'; ocean deeps echo, ‘Never heard of it.' It can't be bought with the finest gold; no amount of silver can get it. Even famous Ophir gold can't buy it, not even diamonds and sapphires. Neither gold nor emeralds are comparable; extravagant jewelry can't touch it. Pearl necklaces and ruby bracelets—why bother? None of this is even a down payment on Wisdom! Pile gold and African diamonds as high as you will, they can't hold a candle to Wisdom.
"But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
"But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
"But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
"But where can wisdom be found?And where is the place of understanding?
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Job 28:20, Job 28:28, 1 Kings 3:9, Psalms 51:6, Proverbs 2:4-6, Proverbs 3:19, Ecclesiastes 7:23-25, 1 Corinthians 1:19, 1 Corinthians 1:20, Colossians 2:3, James 1:5, James 1:17
Reciprocal: Job 36:3 - fetch Proverbs 20:15 - but Proverbs 23:23 - Buy Ecclesiastes 7:24 - General James 3:17 - the wisdom
Cross-References
After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.
And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughers of Laban thy mother's brother.
And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughers of Canaan;
And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;
And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
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", Hosea 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!"
Romans 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
Deuteronomy 30:11; but it is much better to interpret it of the Gospel, to which the apostle applies the above passage, Romans 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 Proverbs 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, Proverbs 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, Psalms 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, 1 John 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 Proverbs 1:2.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
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.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 28:12. 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.
