Verse Lens · Context pointer
Job 28:18 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 18. 18No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
Job 28:18 advances the thought unit with the words “No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.” The wisdom poem states “No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls” as one poetic claim in No Depth or Treasure Can Purchase Wisdom.
Read It With
- Job 28:14–28:19
Read Job 28:18 with 28:14–28:19. Read alone, “No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: The deep and sea deny possessing wisdom, and gold, silver, jewels, coral, pearls, and topaz cannot equal its price.
Why It Needs Context
Job 28:18 depends on 28:14–28:19; isolating “No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies” would detach a poetic premise, image, response, or transition from The wisdom poem and “No Depth or Treasure Can Purchase Wisdom.”
Read Job 28:14–19 together
Why these verses belong together: Job 28:14–28:19 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained wisdom-poem movement: “No Depth or Treasure Can Purchase Wisdom.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.
Verse 14. 14 The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.
Verse 15. 15 It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
Verse 16. 16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Verse 17. 17 The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
Verse 18. 18 No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
Verse 19. 19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Job 28:14–28:19 — No Depth or Treasure Can Purchase WisdomSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
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 ↗