Job 28: A Journey into the Mines

The text of Job 28 is a beautiful composition. It reveals important truths about the nature of wisdom and at the same time paints an exquisite picture of the book of Job’s central theme.

A few chapters back, Job made an important statement. “If you would only be silent for a while”, Job said to his friends, “it would result in your wisdom” (Job 13.5).

Well, here in Job 28, that statement takes on a prophetic character. Chapters 26–31 consist of a series of three unanswered speeches by Job (chs. 26, 27–28, and 29–31). We should hear the voice of Zophar in chapter 27, but, instead, Job’s friends fall silent, and that silence is filled by some of the wisest words uttered in the book so far. Indeed, in many ways the words of chapter 28 pave the way for God’s final speech to Job (38.1ff.).

Before we get into that, however, let’s consider the basic content of chapter 28. The chapter’s argument is (roughly) as follows.

Man goes to great lengths to extract precious substances from the earth (28.1–6). In search of precious metals and jewels, he travels to far-off and remote places—places unknown to even wild animals (28.3–11)—, and there he finds such things.

To acquire wisdom, however, is much harder (28.12–13). Man doesn’t know where to look for wisdom and wouldn’t be able to attain to it if he did (28.14ff.). God’s creation is an unfathomably complex and interconnected system. To find wisdom would require a man to see to the ends of the earth—to know where and in what way the wind should blow and the rains should fall and to govern the world’s most (apparently) wild and chaotic processes. And so God alone can possess wisdom. It’s a divine quality and a divine possession (28.20–27).

The implication of these verses is fairly bleak. What is most valuable in life is beyond man’s reach. While man can, with great effort, obtain precious jewels, he cannot obtain wisdom.

But we have not yet considered the chapter’s final verse, which records the first words God speaks to mankind in Job’s story. “It is the fear of the Lord”, God says, “that is wisdom, and the shunning of evil that is understanding” (Job 28.28). These words change everything. True, man cannot obtain wisdom. But what man can do is live in the fear and reverence of God, the One who is the source of all wisdom. And, insofar as he can do that, man can live in the way he would and should want to if he did have divine wisdom, i.e., if he finally received the answer to all his questions.

Wisdom is not a commodity (like jewels) to be pursued for its worth and locked away in a safe. Rather, wisdom is a moral quality which is exhibited (or not) by the way we live. Although to attain wisdom is impossible, to live in the fear of God is not, and is precisely what it means to be wise.

The same conclusion is borne out by the subtleties of chapter 28’s grammar.

Chapter 28 asks two questions about wisdom: “Where is wisdom to be found?” (28.12) and “Where does wisdom come from?” (28.20). In both cases a forlorn answer is given. Wisdom cannot be found in the present world (28.13, 28.21). The grammar of these questions is significant. They do not refer to wisdom as a general concept; they refer to “the wisdom” (הַחָכְמָה)—an expression not found elsewhere in the book of Job. Chapter 28’s questions do not, therefore, seem to concern wisdom per se, but the answer to Job’s question, viz. ‘Why have I been afflicted?’. And yet, as we’ve noted, there is no single answer to Job’s question, or at least not one that Job can understand.¹ And so God’s words in chapter 28 seek to turn Job away from his questions and towards his relationship with the One in whom their answer lies.

Chapter 28 thus has a lot to tell us about the nature of wisdom.

It also has a further purpose. Its depiction of a miner provides us with an exquisite miniature of Job’s predicament.

• Just as man’s search for precious metals takes him into dark and lonely places (28.1–2), so does Job’s pursuit of truth (2.11-12, 16.16, 19.8, 13-20, etc.).

• Just as man’s search for precious jewels takes him into unexplored realms (28.3–4), so does Job’s search for answers. As a righteous sufferer, he is in unchartered territory as far as his friends’ experiences are concerned (8.8, 18.4). Their pat ‘answers’ are of no use to him.

• Just as men descend into mineshafts where they swing to and fro (28.4), so Job is tossed to and fro by his experiences. At first he thinks his situation is hopeless (since God will not vindicate him) (9.2ff.), then he starts to gain confidence in God (13.3ff.), then he doubts again (14.1ff.), and so it continues. Although Job clings on to hope (תִּקְוָה = ‘rope’ or ‘hope’: 7.6!), he is rocked by his friend’s accusations.

• Beneath the earth, many things can be found. Near the surface one can find grain and staple crops, yet further down are precious substances (28.5–6). And just as miners’ go after what is of most value, so too does Job. His friends have fobbed him off with easy grain-like answers and shallow theology. Job wants to dig deeper.

• In order to find precious jewels, man has to venture into lonely and desolate places (28.7–11), which is where Job too must go. Indeed, in chapter 28, as the voices of his friends fade away, Job becomes more reflective. He no longer needs to address his friends’ accusations. And then, in the silence, wisdom speaks. What is hidden starts to come to light, and, finally, Job gets an audience with God (38.1ff.).

The text of Job 28 is thus a remarkable and multi-faceted composition. It reveals important truths about the nature of wisdom and at the same time paints an exquisite picture of the book of Job’s central theme.

1. As readers of the book of Job, we might think the answer lies in chapters 1–2, where we are told about the source of Job’s problems, viz. Satan’s accusations. Yet Satan’s accusations are not ultimately the reason why Job is afflicted, hence God does not mention them in his entire 124-verse speech to Job.