Job 28:28

and unto man he said This ordinance in regard to man is also considered contemporary with creation; then God saw and searched out Wisdom, and at the same time, as suitable to man's place, He ordained for him hisWisdom, which is the fear of the Lord and to depart from evil.

The Wisdom spoken of throughout the chapter is a possession of God alone, it is His who is Creator; man has a wisdom also, which is that of the creature, to fear the Lord. There is not, however, in all the chapter the shadow of a complaint; there is no turning of the spirit against God (ch. Job 15:13) under the feeling that the "envious" Creator has reserved the higher insight for Himself, and only bound on mankind the heavy burden of "fearing" Him. Such a thought is wholly at variance with the spirit of the passage. The speaker is calm and reflective and, to all appearance, satisfied that things are as we see them because they could not be otherwise.

Wisdom is the idea or principle lying under the order of the Universe, the world plan. This order of the world, however, is not a mere physical one, an order of "nature." Such an idea as "nature" was foreign to the Hebrew mind. Equally unknown was the idea of a mere physical constitution of things. The constitution of the world was moral, and hence the life and destinies of men, no less than the phenomena of the world, were comprised under Wisdom.

When it is said that Wisdom has no place where it can be found and can be purchased for no price, the language is based upon the conception of Wisdom as an objective thing; but the meaning is that intellectual apprehension of the scope of the phenomena of the world and the events of man's life is beyond the reach of man; such knowledge belongs only to God, who made the world.

To inculcate this truth and the other truth related to it, that man's wisdom is the fear of the Lord, is the object of the chapter.

It seems an entire misapprehension of the meaning of the passage when it is regarded as teaching that "Wisdom, unlike earthly treasures, is nowhere to be found in the visible, sensible world"; that "not in the world of sense, but only from and with God can it be acquired, through the fear of God." The distinctions introduced here are modern. The passage teaches that Wisdom cannot be found either in the visible or the invisible world (Job 28:22), neither by man nor by any creature (Job 28:21). It is a thing possible to God alone; and man does not attain to it through the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord is the substitute ordained for man instead of it; for as the absolute Wisdom belongs to the Creator, so the fear of the Lord is the wisdom that befits the creature.

The connexion between Chapter s 27 and 28 is difficult to perceive. Very many suggestions have been offered, of which two may be noticed.

Chap. 27 ends with a dark picture of the fate of the wicked at "the hand of God," and ch. 28 begins, "forthere is a vein for the silver … but where shall Wisdom be found?" As Job in ch. 27 is understood to be modifying his former statements he is supposed by some to speak thus: "I concede that such (ch. Job 27:13-23) is the fate of the wicked [but all riddles of Providence are not thereby solved, for example the afflictions of just men like myself, nor can they be solved] for, though men may attain to much by their skill and insight, Wisdom is beyond them." This makes the whole of ch. 28, introduced by for, the support of a thought which is not expressed nor even hinted at, but merely interpolated from the mind of the commentator.

Others, assuming Job to be the speaker, connect thus: "such (ch. Job 27:13-23) is the disastrous fate of the wicked [and it must be so] forWisdom [which is the way to prosperity in life] can be reached only through the fear of the Lord [which such men have rejected"]. Apart from the strong interpolations needful to help out the thought, the extraordinary circumlocution, in the shape of the long disquisition on Wisdom, which the speaker is supposed to employ in order to express his idea, marks this attempt to construct a bridge between the two Chapter s as desperate. Besides, if the remarks made above in regard to the general meaning of ch. 28 have any worth, the attempt is based upon a reading of the sense of that chapter which is entirely wrong.

See further on these two Chapter s in the Introduction.