Job 28:23

King James Version

God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.

Parallel Translations

New Living Translation
"God alone understands the way to wisdom; he knows where it can be found,

English Revised Version
God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.

Update Bible Version
God understands the way thereof, And he knows the place thereof.

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.

Webster's Bible Translation
God understandeth the way of it, and he knoweth its place.

World English Bible
"God understands its way, And he knows its place.

Amplified Bible
"God understands the way [to wisdom] And He knows its place [for wisdom is with God alone].

English Standard Version
"God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
God vndurstondith the weye therof, and he knowith the place therof.

Berean Standard Bible
But God understands its way, and He knows its place.

Contemporary English Version
God is the only one who knows the way to wisdom,

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;

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.

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.

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.

Geneva Bible (1587)
But God vnderstandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.

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,

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.

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.

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.

Lexham English Bible
"God understands its way, and he knows its place,

Literal Translation
God knows its way, and He knows its place.

Young's Literal Translation
God hath understood its way, And He hath known its place.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But God seyth hir waie, & knoweth hir 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
"God understands its way, And He knows its place.

New King James Version
God understands its way, And He knows its place.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"God understands its way, And He knows its place.

Legacy Standard Bible
"God understands its way,And He knows its place.

Contextual Overview

²⁰ Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? ²¹ Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. ²² Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. ²³ God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. ²⁴ For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; ²⁵ To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. ²⁶ When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: ²⁷ Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out. ²⁸ And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord , that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

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.