Then he saw it and declared it: this verse describes what happened when the events of verses 25 and 26 had taken place, and is introduced by a word meaning then, marking a concluding event. In the four verbs which follow, God is the subject and wisdom the object. Revised Standard Version follows the order of the Hebrew verbs: saw, declared, established, and searched. Translators will no doubt feel that the sequence of events here is not entirely chronological, since the search or testing should happen before declaring or establishing. (The Hebrew text may be following some form of chiastic ordering.) See below for a discussion of these terms. Note that Good News Translation has arranged these events in the order “saw, tested, gave approval.” We may also place them in the order searched, saw, declared, established. It should be noted that the poet, when placing searched at the end, has also added to it a Hebrew form often translated “even” or “also.” This may give it the sense of “having already searched.” He … declared it (wisdom) is unclear. Dhorme interprets the expression to mean “appraise,” “evaluate,” which New Jerusalem Bible follows with “then he saw and evaluated her (wisdom).” New English Bible is similar, with “… he saw wisdom and took stock of it.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends “he explained it.” The line may also be rendered, for example, “Then he saw wisdom and saw its worth” or “Then he saw how valuable wisdom was,” or following Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, “… and explained how it is.”

He established it: some Hebrew manuscripts have “discerned it,” which New Jerusalem Bible follows with “looked her through and through,” a translation that may cause English speaking readers some confusion. Bible en français courant, which follows the same thought, translates “He observed it.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “examined it,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “acknowledged its worth.” Searched it out translates the same verb rendered “search out” in verse 3. In this line the verb is used as in 5.27, “This we have searched out; it is true.” As there, the meaning here is “to study, examine.” Good News Translation translates this verb as “tested its worth.” Translators should decide if any meaningful advantage is gained by reordering the verbs, and if so, may follow the order of Good News Translation. The line may be expressed “he examined it and gave it his approval” or “he looked at it carefully and said that wisdom was good.” Following the suggestion above, that searched may be taken as what was done first, we may translate verse 27 “After searching out the matter he saw how wisdom was and gave it his approval.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .