Job 28:1-13 ▼

1 SURELY there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined.

2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is smelted out of the stone.

3 God sets an end to darkness, and knows the end of everything, the deep and dark mine and the shadow of death.

4 They have inherited a ruined mine from an alien people; they are gone astray from the right path and their number has diminished from among men.

5 They lay open the earth, out of which comes sustenance; and from under it is turned up material as if it were burned with fire.

6 The stones of it are the place where sapphires are found, and it has dust of gold in its paths.

7 There is a path which no bird knows, and the vulture's eye has not seen;

8 Wild beasts have not trodden it, nor has the lion passed by it.

9 The miner puts forth his hand upon the hard rock to break it; he overturns the mountains from their foundations.

10 He divides the rivers by his might; and his eye sees every precious thing.

11 He binds up the rivers that they may not overflow; and the thing that is hid, he brings forth to light.

12 But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding thereof?

13 No man knows the treasure thereof; neither is it found except in the land of the living.