Dual Panel1"People know how to mine silver and refine gold.
2They know how to dig iron from the earth and smelt copper from stone.
3They know how to put light into darkness and explore the farthest, darkest regions of the earth as they search for ore.
4They sink a mine shaft into the earth far from where anyone lives. They descend on ropes, swinging back and forth.
5Bread comes from the earth, but below the surface the earth is melted as by fire.
6"People know how to find sapphires and gold dust––
7treasures that no bird of prey can see, no falcon’s eye observe––
8for they are deep within the mines. No wild animal has ever walked upon those treasures; no lion has set his paw there.
9People know how to tear apart flinty rocks and overturn the roots of mountains.
10They cut tunnels in the rocks and uncover precious stones.
11They dam up the trickling streams and bring to light the hidden treasures.
12"But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding?
13No one knows where to find it, for it is not found among the living.
14‘It is not here,’ says the ocean. ‘Nor is it here,’ says the sea.
15"It cannot be bought for gold or silver.
16Its value is greater than all the gold of Ophir, greater than precious onyx stone or sapphires.
17Wisdom is far more valuable than gold and crystal. It cannot be purchased with jewels mounted in fine gold.
18Coral and valuable rock crystal are worthless in trying to get it. The price of wisdom is far above pearls.
19Topaz from Ethiopia cannot be exchanged for it. Its value is greater than the purest gold.
20"But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding?
21For it is hidden from the eyes of all humanity. Even the sharp–eyed birds in the sky cannot discover it.
22But Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of where wisdom can be found.’
23"God surely knows where it can be found,
24for he looks throughout the whole earth, under all the heavens.
25He made the winds blow and determined how much rain should fall.
26He made the laws of the rain and prepared a path for the lightning.
27Then, when he had done all this, he saw wisdom and measured it. He established it and examined it thoroughly.
28And this is what he says to all humanity: ‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding.’"