Job's discourse on wisdom, with which he continues his speech, follows directly from what he said in the preceding...
Job's discourse on wisdom, with which he continues his speech, follows directly from what he said in the preceding chapter. A person can be judged only by a law that has been revealed to them and that they themselves understand. Otherwise—as is characteristic of human law—the question arises of whether judgment and punishment are justified. Could a human being have known the whole truth about the Creator's will? Did Job have the possibility of being wholly perfect, or was his righteousness the utmost a person can attain in serving God?
These are the questions Job answers in chapter 28. He speaks of the human works that fill the earth. People mine gold and silver, copper and iron, grow grain and seek out precious stones. The scale of human activity is astonishing; Job speaks of rocks through which people cut channels, and of streams whose flow they stop. Much lies within human power, and with the passage of time our capabilities continue to grow. In our own day, we could add a great deal to this list of civilisation's achievements. But wisdom, the knowledge of the path leading to the fullness of true life, belongs to a different order. Where is it, that a person might come to know it? The depths of the seas have become accessible to humanity, yet the deep says: it is not in me. People will mine gold and precious stones, but no treasure can buy wisdom. It is hidden from the sight of the living, and the dead have only heard of it but do not know its place.
Thus, however much a person may wish it, they cannot attain wisdom so as to be perfect before God; at any rate, they cannot do so on their own. In the Torah the Lord shows humanity the way of life, which in the age of the author of Job was called wisdom. Significantly, one of the Torah's most important texts seems to join the conversation the author of Job presents to us. Instructing a person to follow the commandments, love God and thus draw near to him, Deut. 30:11–14 says: ‘For this commandment which I command you today is neither beyond your reach nor far away. It is not in heaven, that one might say, “Who would go up to heaven for us and bring it to us, and let us hear it, so that we might do it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, that one might say, “Who would cross the sea for us and bring it to us, and let us hear it, so that we might do it?” But this word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it.’
Like the tradition of Deuteronomy that goes back to Moses, and unlike his friends, Job considers a person's striving to fulfil what God has revealed to them to be fundamentally important. God knows wisdom, and it is subject to him. He reveals it to humanity, and a person receives wisdom in the way Job describes in the closing lines of this chapter. Following the traditional expressions of the late biblical period, Job calls awe before the Unseen and turning away from evil the essence of true wisdom. Unlike his friends, who think within the framework of ritual defilement—whose nature does not matter and need not be understood—Job speaks of the direction of the human heart. For him, righteousness and wisdom mean being oriented towards God.
Some scholars consider chapter 28 an insertion, a kind of lyrical digression. They regard it as an independent poem. Even if this is so, the book's author binds the discourse on wisdom inseparably to the whole context of Job's speeches. Perhaps he used a traditional literary structure—but he used it more than appropriately.
28 The wisdom of God in the works of nature, Job 28:1-11.
A wisdom like this cannot be found in man, neither can it be bought at any price, Job 28:12-21.
Death makes a report concerning it, Job 28:22.
It is hid in God, Job 28:23-27.
To fear God is man's wisdom, Job 28:28.
28:27 It - Wisdom, which is the subject of the present discourse.This God saw within himself; he looked upon it in his own mind, as the rule by which he would proceed in the creation and government of all things. Declare - Or reveal it. Prepared - He had it in readiness for doing all his works, as if he had been for a long time preparing materials for them. So it is a speech of God after the manner of men.Searched - Not properly; for so searching implies ignorance, and requires time and industry, all which is repugnant to the Divine perfections; but figuratively, he did, and doth, all things with that absolute and perfect wisdom, so exactly, and perfectly, as if he had bestowed a long time in searching, to find them out.
28:28 Man - Unto Adam in the day in which he was created. And in him, to all his posterity. Said - God spake it, at first to the mind of man, in which he wrote this with his own finger, and afterwards by the holy patriarchs, and prophets, and other teachers, whom he sent into the world to teach men true wisdom. Behold - Which expression denotes the great importance of this doctrine, and withal man's backwardness to apprehend it. The fear of the Lord - True religion. Wisdom - In man's wisdom, because that, and that only, is his duty, and safety, and happiness, both for this life and for the next. Evil - From sin, which is called evil eminently, as being the chief evil, and the cause of all other evils. Religion consists of two branches, doing good, and forsaking evil; the former is expressed in the former clause of this verse, and the latter in these words; and this is the best kind of knowledge or wisdom to which man can attain in this life. The design of Job in this close of his discourse, is not to reprove the boldness of his friends, in prying into God's secrets, and passing such a rash censure upon him, and upon God's carriage towards him; but also to vindicate himself from the imputation of hypocrisy, which they fastened upon him, by shewing that he had ever esteemed it to be his best wisdom, to fear God, and to depart from evil.