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 among 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 rumor 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.’”