NOTES for Job 28:27-28

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.

Continuing his speech, Job composes a true hymn to wisdom, which, however, cannot be acquired by human effort. He speaks of the capacities of the human mind, which penetrates the mysteries of nature (vv. 1-11). But Job, as we can see, understands perfectly well that even after knowing everything that is open to a person in the world created by God, the one who knows will not acquire wisdom (vv. 12-19). For him, wisdom is not reduced simply to the sum of knowledge about the world, even if that sum embraces everything accessible to reason. True wisdom, as we can see, is known to God alone; only He is its source and keeper (vv. 23-28). Clearly, Job here returns once again to what his friends have already spoken of more than once: to what later theologians will call natural revelation, the revelation of God's power and wisdom manifested in creation. Job neither before nor now denies natural revelation. But he understands that, if it is possible to see wisdom through creation, it is not because this wisdom is part of creation. There is no wisdom in the world; it is with God. And if it is revealed through creation, it is only because creation itself bears the imprint of the wisdom of its Creator.

But such wisdom turns out to be foreign to the human being, to whom God has given another path of knowledge: the fear of God and the right spiritual and moral choice (v. 28). As we can see, Job has become finally convinced that natural revelation is not enough, that what matters is God's relationship with humanity, without which knowledge of wisdom is impossible. This is not surprising if we remember that in post-exilic Judaism wisdom was understood primarily as the art of righteousness, a kind of skill in righteous living. And here, in questions concerning the Torah, spiritual life, and the choice between good and evil, nature, even bearing the Creator's seal, turned out to be a poor adviser for a person. Nature is nonmoral; in essence, it knows neither good nor evil. That is why Job says that no scientific knowledge or technical achievements in themselves bring a person closer to the knowledge of wisdom. Relations with God are another matter: the holy awe that seizes a person in God's presence, and the experience of following God's commandment spiritually, give a person more than any scientific knowledge. And this is not surprising: for in this case we are speaking of relations with God, which can be established only by standing face to face with Him. This is precisely the meeting Job seeks.