Job 28:22

destruction and death Heb. Abaddonand Death. Abaddon is Sheol, the realm of the dead, here personified, as also is Death. Comp. Revelation 1:18; Revelation 9:11, and see on ch. Job 26:6.

the fame thereof i. e. the reportor rumour thereof. Destruction and Death have only heard ofWisdom, they have no knowledge of it, much less is it to be found with them. It is not true, alas! in this sense that

There must be wisdom with great Death.

The words "we have heard the report thereof" ascribe neither a less nor a greater knowledge of Wisdom to Death than the living possess. Both are equally ignorant of it, and equally without it. As Job 28:13-14 told how Wisdom was nowhere to be found in the upper world so Job 28:22 states that it is not to be found in the under world. The process of exhaustion is complete: Wisdom is nowhere to be found, neither in the bowels of the earth nor in the markets of mankind, in the deep nor in the sea; neither in the land of the living nor in the place of the dead.