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28:1  Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.
28:2  Iron is taken from the ground, and copper is smelted from ore.
28:3  A miner puts an end to the darkness; he probes the deepest recesses for ore in the gloomy darkness.
28:4  He cuts a shaft far from human habitation, in places unknown to those who walk above ground. Suspended far away from people, the miners swing back and forth.
28:5  Food may come from the earth, but below the surface the earth is transformed as by fire.
28:6  Its rocks are a source of lapis lazuli, containing flecks of gold.
28:7  No bird of prey knows that path; no falcon’s eye has seen it.
28:8  Proud beasts have never walked on it; no lion has ever prowled over it.
28:9  The miner uses a flint tool and turns up ore from the root of the mountains.
28:10  He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eyes spot every treasure.
28:11  He dams up the streams from flowing so that he may bring to light what is hidden.
28:12  But where can wisdom be found, and where is understanding located?
28:13  No one can know its value, since it cannot be found in the land of the living.
28:14  The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,” while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”
28:15  Gold cannot be exchanged for it, and silver cannot be weighed out for its price.
28:16  Wisdom cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
28:17  Gold and glass do not compare with it, and articles of fine gold cannot be exchanged for it.
28:18  Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning. The price of wisdom is beyond pearls.
28:19  Topaz from Cush cannot compare with it, and it cannot be valued in pure gold.
28:20  Where then does wisdom come from, and where is understanding located?
28:21  It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the sky.
28:22  Abaddon and Death say, “We have heard news of it with our ears.”
28:23  But God understands the way to wisdom, and he knows its location.
28:24  For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.
28:25  When God fixed the weight of the wind and distributed the water by measure,
28:26  when he established a limit for the rain and a path for the lightning,
28:27  he considered wisdom and evaluated it; he established it and examined it.
28:28  He said to mankind, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom. And to turn from evil is understanding.”