Job 28:20

Job 28:20

Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?

a. NLT: “But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding?

b. NIV: Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell?

c. YLT: And the wisdom -- whence doth it come? And where is this, the place of understanding?

d. Amplified Bible Classic: From where then does Wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?

e. Septuagint: Whence then is wisdom found? and of what kind is the place of understanding? 

f. Stone Edition Torah/Prophets/Writings: Wisdom: From where does it come? Which is the place of understanding?

1. Whence then cometh wisdom?

a. Whence [370 * 'aiyn] [Strong:  probably identical 369 in the sense of query (Compare 336); --where? (only in connection with prepositional prefix, whence):--whence, where.]

b. then cometh [935 * bow’] [Strong: a primitive root; to go or come (in a wide variety of applications):--abide, apply, attain, X be, befall, + besiege, bring (forth, in, into, to pass), call, carry, X certainly, (cause, let, thing for) to come (against, in, out, upon, to pass), depart, X doubtless again, + eat, + employ, (cause to) enter (in, into, -tering, -trance, -try), be fallen, fetch, + follow, get, give, go (down, in, to war), grant, + have, X indeed, (in-)vade, lead, lift (up), mention, pull in, put, resort, run (down), send, set, X (well) stricken (in age), X surely, take (in), way.]

c. wisdom [2451 * chokmah] [Stron g: from 2449; wisdom (in a good sense):--skilful, wisdom, wisely, wit.]

2. and where is the place of understanding?

a. and where is the place [4725 * maqowm; maqom; also (feminine) mqowmah;  or mqomah] [Strong: from 6965; properly, a standing, i.e. a spot; but used widely of a locality (general or specific); also (figuratively) of a condition (of body or mind):--country, X home, X open, place, room, space, X whither(-soever).]

b. of understanding [998 * biynah] [Strong: from 995; understanding:--knowledge, meaning, X perfectly, understanding, wisdom.]

1). Institute Of Creation Research Daily Devotional 10/18/15: In one of his monologues, the patriarch Job compares his search for spiritual understanding to man’s explorations for metals and precious stones. “There is a vein for the silver,” he said, “and a place for gold. . . . Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone” (vv. 1-2). These all are easier to find than true wisdom. “It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold” (vv. 16-19). Neither have animals discovered it. “The fierce lion passed by it. . . . it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air” (vv. 8, 21). “The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me” (v. 14). “But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?” (v. 12). Job is driven to ask: “Where must one go to find and mine the vein of true wisdom?” It is certainly “not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought” (1 Corinthians 2:6). The mine of evolutionary humanism which dominates modern education and scholarship will yield only the fool’s gold of “science falsely so called” (1 Timothy 6:20). Job found true wisdom only through God, and so must we, for only “God understandeth the way thereof . . . unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28:23, 28). The Lord Jesus Christ is the ever-productive mine “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). HMM

2). True wisdom comes from one place, from God.

a). Colossians 2:2-4 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

2:4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.