For this verse compare Job 28.12. The pronoun her refers to Wisdom (for the use of the feminine pronoun, see the comments on verse 12). In the first line most translators will need to use the noun “Wisdom” instead of the pronoun, as Good News Translation and New English Bible have done. The two questions asked in the text are rhetorical questions, with “No one” as the expected answer. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version establish this by converting the questions into a simple statement. The poetic image involved here is that of Wisdom as a woman who has a home (her place) full of riches (her storehouses); the riches are of course wisdom. The author believes that the source of wisdom is God alone, and therefore no one has ever found its location; it would be like finding the end of the rainbow.

These questions could be restated like this:

• Has anyone ever found where God keeps his wisdom, or entered the place where all these priceless truths are stored?

This rendering would at least lead the reader in the direction of the expected negative answer, and fit in well with the following verses.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.