Job 28 — The Mine and the Mystery
After chapter 27’s hard talk about “portions” and the wicked’s end, Job 28 arrives like a bell in the fog. The quarrel pauses. A hymn rises. Ancient miners descend on ropes, lamps in hand, opening shafts where “the falcon’s eye has not seen.” They tunnel beneath roots, divert streams, and bring hidden stones to light. Archaeologists have uncovered such scenes at Timna in the Arabah and Serabit el-Khadim in Sinai—vertical shafts with footholes cut into rock, soot-stained ceilings from oil lamps, the oldest “end to darkness” humanity could muster. The poem admires human craft. Yet it then asks a question our technologies cannot answer: “But where shall wisdom be found?” (Job 28:12).
The chapter turns on a profound irony: humans can unearth what birds and beasts cannot, yet cannot locate wisdom. It is not in the “land of the living.” The Deep refuses it; Death and Abaddon only “have heard a rumor of it” (the Hebrew shemu‘ah—an echo, a faint report; cf. our note on Job 26: “we hear only a whisper”). Not even wealth can purchase it—gold, onyx, lapis, coral fail the transaction. Wisdom is not a commodity; it is a communion.
Then the poem changes the question from where to who. “God understands the way to it” (v. 23). Why? Because he alone orders reality at its most basic: he “gave the wind its weight” and “measured out the waters” (v. 25). This is exquisite Hebrew: God assigns “weight” (mishqal) to the invisibles, as if to say the Creator calibrates what we cannot even grasp. When he traced a “path” (derekh) for lightning and decreed the rain’s rule, he “saw” wisdom and “declared” it (vv. 26–27). Creation is not only a product; it is a proclamation.
The climax is famous, and in Job strikingly rare: “And he said to man, ‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding’” (Job 28:28, New International Version). The Hebrew for “fear” (yir’ah) is not cringing dread but awed, loyal reverence—the posture that yields obedience. Notice the second line: turning from evil (sur mera‘) is “understanding.” Wisdom is recognized in the moral turn, not the mental triumph.
Gregory the Great (Moralia in Job) read the miners as an image of spiritual labor—hanging in the abyss, bringing to light treasures by patience and tears. Augustine insisted that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” which grows into love. Job 28 holds both: humility before mystery and a life that refuses evil. If our reflection yesterday warned against envying the wicked’s “portion,” today reminds us that the wise don’t measure life by portions at all, but by posture.
For Christians, the poem leans forward. The New Testament dares to name Wisdom: “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24, New International Version). In him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3, New International Version). The mine we need is a manger and a cross. We do not buy this wisdom; we are bought by it (1 Peter 1:18–19).
Practices for today - Slow your technology: resist the illusion that more data is more wisdom. Ask, Where am I turning from evil today? - Cultivate reverent awe: pray the psalms aloud; let creation preach—wind with weight, rain with rules. - Seek Wisdom as a Person: take one saying of Jesus and obey it concretely.
Cross-references - Proverbs 1:7; 9:10; Psalm 111:10 - Deuteronomy 29:29 - Ecclesiastes 8:16–17 - Romans 11:33 - James 1:5; 3:13–18 - 1 Corinthians 1:24, 30; Colossians 2:3
A note western readers may miss “Fear of the Lord” is covenant language of loyal awe. It names a relational orientation, not an emotion. And Job 28:28 likely uses a divine title (often rendered “Lord”) rare in Job’s poetry, deliberately tying this book to Israel’s wider wisdom tradition.
Suggested hymn “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.”
Prayer Lord, whose wisdom weighs the wind and measures the seas, teach us the fear that loves you and the understanding that turns from evil. Strip us of the pride that thinks skill is wisdom and wealth can buy it. Lead us to Christ, your Wisdom, and make our lives a clear rumor of him. Amen.