¹“Surely there is a mine for silver ,

and a place for gold which they refine .

²Iron is taken out of the earth ,

and copper is smelted out of the ore.

³Man sets an end to darkness ,

and searches out , to the furthest bound,

the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness .

⁴He breaks open a shaft away from where people live .

They are forgotten by the foot .

They hang far from men, they swing back and forth .

⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread .

Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

⁶Sapphires come from its rocks.

It has dust of gold .

⁷That path no bird of prey knows ,

neither has the falcon’s eye seen it .

⁸The proud animals have not trodden it ,

nor has the fierce lion passed by there.

⁹He puts his hand on the flinty rock ,

and he overturns the mountains by the roots .

¹⁰He cuts out channels amongst the rocks .

His eye sees every precious thing .

¹¹He binds the streams that they don’t trickle.

The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.

¹²“But where will wisdom be found ?

Where is the place of understanding?

¹³Man doesn’t know its price ,

and it isn’t found in the land of the living .

¹⁴The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me .’

The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me .’

¹⁵It can ’t be gotten for gold ,

neither will silver be weighed for its price .

¹⁶It can ’t be valued with the gold of Ophir,

with the precious onyx , or the sapphire .

¹⁷Gold and glass can ’t equal it ,

neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold .

¹⁸No mention will be made of coral or of crystal .

Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies .

¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it .

It won’t be valued with pure gold .

²⁰Where then does wisdom come from ?

Where is the place of understanding?

²¹Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living ,

and kept close from the birds of the sky .

²²Destruction and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumour of it with our ears.’

²³“God understands its way ,

and he knows its place .

²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth ,

and sees under the whole sky .

²⁵He establishes the force of the wind .

Yes, he measures out the waters by measure .

²⁶When he made a decree for the rain ,

and a way for the lightning of the thunder ,

²⁷then he saw it , and declared it .

He established it , yes , and searched it out .

²⁸To man he said,

‘Behold , the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom .

To depart from evil is understanding.’”