✧1Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold [where] they fine [it]. ✧2Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass [is] molten [out of] the stone. ✧3He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death. ✧4The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; [even the waters] forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men. ✧5[As for] the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire. ✧6The stones of it [are] the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold. ✧7[There is] a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen: ✧8The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. ✧
King James Version (KJV). King James Version (1769 text). Public domain outside the United Kingdom.
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He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots.
✧10He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing.
✧11He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and [the thing that is] hid bringeth he forth to light.
✧12But where shall wisdom be found? and where [is] the place of understanding?
✧13Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
✧14The depth saith, It [is] not in me: and the sea saith, [It is] not with me.
✧15It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed [for] the price thereof.
✧16It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
✧17The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it [shall not be for] jewels of fine gold.
✧18No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom [is] above rubies.
✧19The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
✧20Whence then cometh wisdom? and where [is] the place of understanding?
✧21Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
✧22Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
✧23God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
✧24For he looketh to the ends of the earth, [and] seeth under the whole heaven;
✧25To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.
✧26When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:
✧27Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
✧28And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that [is] wisdom; and to depart from evil [is] understanding.