Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold.
“That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon's eye has not seen it.
The proud beasts have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it.
“Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots.
He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing.
He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
“But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living.
The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire.
No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above pearls.
The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.
“From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?
It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air.
“God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.
For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.
When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure,
when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder,
And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”
“Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me,
as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent,
when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me,
when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,
the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood;
the princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth;
the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved,
because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.
The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand,
my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches,
They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
I smiled on them when they had no confidence, and the light of my face they did not cast down.
“But now they laugh at me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone?
Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;
they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes, and the roots of the broom tree for their food.
In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together.
A senseless, a nameless brood, they have been whipped out of the land.
They abhor me; they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.
On my right hand the rabble rise; they push away my feet; they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on.
Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
With great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
ESV® Permanent Text Edition (2016). The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers.
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