“Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots.
Job pictures human achievement: men digging deep into the earth for treasure. Verse 9 shows that effort at its peak, and it sets up the question the whole chapter asks — where is wisdom found?
What the verse pictures
One commentator pictures the miner at work in the rocks:
Samuel RidoutJob returns to the search for treasure. He describes a fruitless quest, in which man takes hold of the rocks (possibly pebbles) and overturns the mountains. We see him washing and sifting the pebbles and sand, or blasting into the solid mountains. He cuts his way deep down, following the vein like a river in its course. He looks with greedy eyes at the rich shining treasures locked up in it.
Skill is not wisdom
The chapter does not belittle human skill. It measures it, and finds that skill and wisdom are not the same thing:
J. N. DarbyThis is a very remarkable chapter. It follows man's skill doing all sorts of things — metallurgy, engineering, damming the floods, and bringing hidden things out of the earth. Skill that is unlimited in a certain sense, in what is subject to him — but this is not wisdom.
What drives the hand on the rock
A man who can overturn a mountain learns to tell treasure from rubbish. But what is he after?
William KellyThey gain a keen understanding of what things are worth — though by no means are they always right... but as a rule they learn what is valuable. "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?
Energy pointed the wrong way
Men will move mountains when they want something enough. The same is not true of their search for wisdom:
Samuel RidoutAgain we ask, why will men not labour like this for the "hidden wisdom"? Why will they not seek to sift it out as it lies so close by, or, if need be, in faith remove the very mountains of difficulty? The course of this world sweeps along like a river. If it would swallow up the true riches, why do men not stop it, or turn it away from them, so that they may take hold of this thing whose value is above all wealth?
The same verdict on every later age
Centuries of digging and discovery since Job have not changed the outcome:
F. B. HoleThey dig down. They divert the underground stream. They make paths untrodden by the strongest beasts or the sharpest-eyed birds. But in all this searching they never find wisdom... Men may discover much. Since Job's day they have discovered an immense amount more. But wisdom eludes them. If Job could see man's activities and discoveries in our atomic age, he would say the same, only with emphasis a hundredfold greater.
Where wisdom is found
If wisdom is not in the ore or the overturned mountain, it must come from somewhere else:
William KellyWhat a very solemn thing that is! True wisdom and true understanding are not found in the earth at all. It comes down from heaven. It is found only in Christ.
The chapter ends with an answer that changes how a person sees everything:
W. W. FeredayThe depths of the earth will not reveal it, and its value far exceeds that of gold and rubies. God alone can declare its true nature and value: "And He said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.'" ... So until God has His rightful place in a man's mind and heart, he cannot view anything wisely. His thoughts are off centre. His beginning is all wrong.
Summary
- Skill — Human power at full stretch: a hand on flint, mountains uprooted, veins traced deep underground. The chapter does not deny the achievement.
- Limit — That skill is "unlimited in a certain sense, in what is subject to him" — and still it is not wisdom. Capability and wisdom are different currencies.
- Motive — Behind the moved mountain is self: what will make a man rich, what will bring money and distinction. The trained eye learns what is valuable and misses the one thing worth most.
- Misdirection — Men will remove mountains for gold but not for wisdom, though wisdom "lies so close by." The problem is not lack of energy but aim.
- Source — Wisdom is not in the earth at all; it comes down from heaven and is found in Christ. It starts where the mining stops: the fear of the Lord, and turning from evil.