“But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
Job has just described men tunnelling into the earth for silver, gold and sapphires. Then he stops and asks the one question all that digging cannot answer: can human skill, wealth or exploration ever reach the place where wisdom lives?
The Question Rises Out of a Mine
Job watched men do remarkable things with rock and water, and saw that none of it produced what he was after.
F. B. HoleIn Job's day people practised mining. It may have been a new pursuit then, whether for iron or copper, for gold or silver or gems. They dig down, they divert the underground stream, they cut paths that the strongest beasts and the sharpest-eyed birds have never walked. But in all this searching they never find wisdom. This is the question he raised in verse 12, and he was right to say that these human activities could not find it. Men may discover much. Since Job's day they have discovered far more. But wisdom still escapes them.
What Drives the Digging
The failure is not only in the method. The motive matters too.
William Kelly"But where shall wisdom be found?" No, there is no wisdom in all that. There is self in all that. There is what will make a man rich; there is what will bring money and perhaps distinction; but where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? Well, it is not on the earth, and it is not down in the dark mines where men rush after what they value.
No Price Can Buy It
The following verses answer by elimination — not in the deep, not in the sea, not for gold. If wisdom had a price tag, wealth would settle the matter.
Samuel RidoutMan, frail mortal, does not know the price and does not have it to pay, for it is not found in the land of the living. If it were within reach, some would be able to reach it; some rich man would have the price to pay for it. But it is beyond man. "It is high, I cannot attain it." In the bottomless depths of the deep — "the waters under the earth" — the call for wisdom wakes only one reply: "It is not in me." The wide sea, for all its vastness, does not hold this priceless treasure. Nature, by itself, cannot give a single clue to this heavenly, wondrous good.
Death Has Only Heard a Rumour
A strange witness answers. Destruction and death say they have heard of wisdom, and their report tells us something real, yet it stops short.
J. N. DarbyWhere shall wisdom be found, and where is the path of understanding? It is not found in the land of the living. Destruction and death say we have heard a report of it with our ears. So they have. They tell us the emptiness of all the scene we are in, and, above all, of man at the head of it, the sorest place of all. But it is only negative.
Another writer weighs what a mere report is worth.
Leslie M. Grant"Destruction and death say, We have heard a report about it with our ears" (v. 22), but only a report, for wisdom itself is known only by a direct revelation from God.
God Answers His Own Question
The chapter does not leave the question open. God Himself names where wisdom starts.
W. W. FeredayGod alone can declare its true nature and value. To man He said, "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding." Solomon added to this later: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight" (Prov. 9:10). So until God gets His rightful place in a man's mind and heart, he cannot see anything wisely. His thoughts are off-centre. His beginning is all wrong.
The Place Where Wisdom Lives
Some commentators read Job's question as reaching past his own day. The answer, they say, is a Person.
William KellyTrue wisdom and true understanding not found in the earth at all! It comes down from heaven. It is found only in Christ, and Christ had not yet come. This came out even more in Christ's rejection and Christ's death… "Destruction and death say, We have heard a report of it with our ears." Yes, it was just that very thing. There was a report of that One who is Himself wisdom, and who is the Giver of wisdom to the meek. It was by death that it came to us, but they did not know it.
Summary
- Searched — Human skill goes where no bird or beast can follow, yet comes back without wisdom. Discovery has multiplied since Job; the result is unchanged.
- Self — Gain and distinction drive the digging, so the motive spoils the search before it starts.
- Priceless — No sum buys it and no depth holds it; if money could buy it, the rich would already have it.
- Revealed — Death has heard only a rumour of wisdom; it must come down as revelation from God, not up out of the ground.
- Found — God answers His own question. To fear Him and turn from evil is where wisdom starts, and commentators point on to Christ, who is Himself wisdom.