Chapter text
World English Bible
Verse-by-verse text with stable anchors, canonical chapter URLs, and copyable verse links.
- 1 “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.
- 2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore.
- 3 Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
- 4 He 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.
- 5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread. Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
- 6 Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.
- 7 That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.
- 8 The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
- 9 He puts his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
- 10 He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.
- 11 He 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?
- 13 Man doesn’t know its price, and it isn’t found in the land of the living.
- 14 The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’
- 15 It can’t be gotten for gold, neither will silver be weighed for its price.
- 16 It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
- 17 Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
- 18 No mention will be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
- 19 The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it. It won’t be valued with pure gold.
- 20 Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding?
- 21 Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
- 22 Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’
- 23 “God understands its way, and he knows its place.
- 24 For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.
- 25 He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.
- 26 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder,
- 27 then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.
- 28 To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”