Job 28:14–28:19, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 28:14–28:19
No Depth or Treasure Can Purchase Wisdom
Depth and sea refuse to sell what they do not have
The depth says, It is not in me. The sea says, It is not with me. Wisdom cannot be gotten for gold. Silver cannot be weighed for its price. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Gold and crystal cannot equal it. Exchange shall not be made for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls. The price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it. It shall not be valued with pure gold.
If it cannot be bought, it is not a luxury good
The list is exhaustive on purpose: every treasure the miner of 28:1-13 could bring up still cannot pay this price. Wisdom is not sitting in a richer vault.
The comparison does not curse gold, coral, or a poor person's lack of jewels. Poverty does not automatically create wisdom, and wealth does not automatically destroy it. The point is that wisdom is not a commodity, so it cannot be the friends' reward for a correct speech or Job's refund for a correct life.
How this should shape us
Stop pricing wisdom as if the next purchase, degree, or treasure could deliver it. Use goods without letting them pose as understanding, and do not treat the poor as either unwise or automatically wise.
Teach it back
Explain Job 28:14–28:19 in your own words. Name the speaker, the unit's place in Job, one source-controlled textual or literary observation, one uncertainty, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Job 28:14–28:19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 28:14–28:19
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 28:14–28:19.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 28:14–28:19
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and Theological Themes: wisdom poem and Job's final defense; applied to Job 28:14–28:19
Sources for This Section
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Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
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Exact location: Job 28:14–28:19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 28:14–28:19
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 28:14–28:19.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 28:14–28:19
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
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Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and Theological Themes: wisdom poem and Job's final defense; applied to Job 28:14–28:19
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