complete verse (Job 28:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 28:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “People do not know where (they) may find wisdom,
    and it is not in this world.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “It will not be found among men.
    men do not know its worth,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Man does not know where this can-be-seen. This can- not -be-found here on earth.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Humans do not know where to find it;
    no one can find it here on this earth where they are living.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 28:13

Man does not know the way to it: as the Revised Standard Version note shows, the way to it is based on the Septuagint; the Hebrew has “its price.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends the Hebrew, although only with a “C” rating, and Good News Translation, which has transposed the two lines of verse 13, follows this with “No one knows its true value.” The value of wisdom occurs again in verses 15-19. Translators are encouraged to follow Good News Translation. The Good News Translation form may also be expressed “No one knows how great its value is” or “No one knows how valuable it is.”

And it is not found in the land of the living: in Good News Translation this is the first line of the verse, and it fits better there in English, for stylistic reasons. Land of the living renders the Hebrew literally. The expression is found in Psalm 52.5; Isaiah 38.11; 53.8, and is the opposite of Sheol, which is the land of the dead. New Jerusalem Bible says “She is not to be found on earth where they live,” in which “they” refers to “no human being” used in line a. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “and does not find it in this world.” The line may also be expressed “it (wisdom) cannot be found on this earth” or “no one will find it in this world.”

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 .

textual location of Job 28:1-28

According to the Job translation by Greenstein (2019), Job 28:1-28 should be located following Job 37:24. He explains:

“In the preceding passage (37:14-24), Elihu describes the uncanny marvels of the created world in the upper realm, in the sky. In the present passage (chapter 28), Elihu continues to describe a world that is beyond human comprehension, now focusing on the lower realm, the earth and, more particularly, the subterranean, which includes both the netherworld—the domain of the dead—and the sea that was believed to lie beneath the land. The passage is structured by two questions that ask, Where can (divine) wisdom be found? The question turns out to be a riddle, for the answer is not about where, but when (see verses 25-27).

“Modern commentators tend to regard chapter 28, which does not comport with Job’s perspectives, as an independent poem that cannot be attributed to any of the known speakers. The assumption that the poem is autonomous is highly problematic. Biblical poems do not begin with the conjunction ki, ‘for, because,’ as this passage does. There is no antecedent to the pronoun ‘he’ in verse 3. But more important, the motif of esoteric wisdom lying beyond human reach typically includes both the above and the below (see for example Job 11:7-8; Deuteronomy 30:11-13; Jeremiah 31:36; as well the Babylonian hymn to the sun god Shamash). The conclusion of this passage (28:28) echoes the conclusion of the survey of the heavenly wonders in 37:24, and it is following that passage that this one belongs.”