Job 28:27

KJV

Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.

KJV (with Strong's)

Then did he see {H7200} it, and declare {H5608} it; he prepared {H3559} it, yea, and searched it out {H2713}.

Complete Jewish Bible

then he saw [wisdom] and declared it, yes, he set it up and searched it out.

Berean Standard Bible

then He looked at wisdom and appraised it; He established it and searched it out.

American Standard Version

Then did he see it, and declare it; He established it, yea, and searched it out.

Commentary

### SUMMARY
Job 28:27 serves as the profound climax of a poetic interlude dedicated to the nature of true wisdom, contrasting humanity's remarkable but limited ability to extract material wealth from the earth with the unsearchable value of divine wisdom. This verse unequivocally declares God's unique and exclusive relationship with wisdom, asserting that He alone fully comprehends, establishes, and intimately knows it. It positions God as wisdom's sole possessor and ultimate source, a truth entirely inaccessible through human endeavor or discovery.

### CONTEXT
* **Literary Context:** Chapter 28 functions as a magnificent, self-contained hymn to wisdom, strategically placed within the ongoing dialogue between Job and his friends. It provides a dramatic shift in focus from the immediate suffering of Job and the debates concerning divine justice to the transcendent nature of wisdom itself. The chapter meticulously builds its argument: [Job 28:1-11](/job/28-1-11 "Job 28:1-11 - Humanity's Mastery Over Earth's Treasures") details humanity's ingenious efforts to mine precious metals, highlighting human capability in the physical realm. [Job 28:12-22](/job/28-12-22 "Job 28:12-22 - The Elusive Nature of Wisdom") then pivots dramatically, posing the rhetorical question of where wisdom can be found and emphatically stating that it cannot be bought with any earthly treasure or discovered in any earthly domain. This sets the stage for the revelation that only God knows wisdom's path. [Job 28:23-26](/job/28-23-26 "Job 28:23-26 - God's Comprehensive Knowledge of Creation") further underscore God's comprehensive knowledge of all creation—from the depths of the earth to the expanse of the heavens, the weight of the wind, and the measure of the waters—thereby preparing the reader for the ultimate declaration in the verse under consideration, which states God's direct and exhaustive relationship with wisdom itself. The chapter then concludes in [Job 28:28](/job/28-28 "Job 28:28 - The Fear of the Lord is Wisdom"), defining true wisdom for humanity as the fear of the Lord and departure from evil.

* **Historical & Cultural Context:** The Book of Job is a masterpiece of ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature, a genre prevalent in cultures like Egypt and Mesopotamia. These texts often explored life's profound questions, the nature of suffering, and the pursuit of knowledge and virtue. In this cultural milieu, "wisdom" (Hebrew: *ḥokhmah*) was not merely intellectual acumen but a practical skill for living well, understanding the world, and discerning divine order. It encompassed moral insight, practical prudence, and a deep understanding of the cosmos. Unlike other wisdom traditions that might suggest wisdom could be attained through human observation or tradition, [Job 28](/job/28 "Job 28 - Where Can Wisdom Be Found?"), and particularly [Job 28:27](/job/28-27 "Job 28:27 - God's Exclusive Knowledge of Wisdom"), makes a radical claim: ultimate wisdom is not a human discovery but a divine revelation and possession. This challenges the common humanistic striving for self-sufficiency in understanding life's deepest mysteries, placing the source of all true wisdom firmly in the hands of the Creator, a concept deeply rooted in Israelite theology, as seen in passages like [Proverbs 1:7](/proverbs/1-7 "Proverbs 1:7 - The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Knowledge").

* **Key Themes:** [Job 28](/job/28 "Job 28 - Where Can Wisdom Be Found?") as a whole, and [Job 28:27](/job/28-27 "Job 28:27 - God's Exclusive Knowledge of Wisdom") in particular, powerfully articulate several core theological themes. Foremost is the **transcendence and exclusivity of divine wisdom**. The chapter meticulously contrasts humanity's impressive but finite grasp of the physical world with God's infinite, inherent, and comprehensive knowledge of wisdom. This wisdom is not something God "finds" or "discovers" but something He inherently possesses, establishes, and fully comprehends. Secondly, the verse emphasizes **God's sovereign ordering of creation through wisdom**. The preceding verses, such as [Job 28:25-26](/job/28-25-26 "Job 28:25-26 - God's Knowledge of Wind and Water"), link God's wisdom directly to His meticulous design and governance of the natural world, suggesting that divine wisdom is not an abstract concept but is intrinsically woven into the very fabric, laws, and operations of the universe He created. This reinforces the idea that true understanding of the cosmos ultimately points back to the Creator's wise design, a truth echoed throughout the biblical narrative, from the creation account in [Genesis 1](/genesis/1 "Genesis 1 - The Creation Account") to the wisdom literature of [Proverbs](/proverbs/1 "Proverbs - The Book of Wisdom").

### EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
#### Key Word Analysis
* **see (Hebrew, _râʼâh'_):** While often meaning simple visual perception, in this context, *râʼâh* conveys a profound sense of comprehensive understanding, discernment, and intimate knowledge. When applied to God concerning wisdom, it signifies an exhaustive and perfect grasp of its entirety, its depths, and its every facet, without any limitation or obscurity. God perceives wisdom in its absolute fullness.
* **prepared (Hebrew, _kûwn'_):** This verb signifies to establish, make firm, set in place, or confirm. It implies an act of foundational creation or arrangement. God did not stumble upon wisdom; rather, He actively "prepared" or "established" it as a fundamental, unshakeable principle. This highlights wisdom's inherent stability and its role as a pre-existent attribute or blueprint in God's mind, integral to His creative and governing acts, echoing descriptions of wisdom's role in creation found in passages like [Proverbs 8:22-31](/proverbs/8-22-31 "Proverbs 8:22-31 - Wisdom's Role in Creation").
* **searched it out (Hebrew, _châqar'_):** For humans, *châqar* means to investigate, explore, or scrutinize. When attributed to the omniscient God, it is an anthropomorphism that emphasizes the absolute thoroughness and depth of His knowledge. It is not a process of discovery for God, who knows all things inherently, but rather an affirmation that His understanding of wisdom is utterly complete, exhaustive, and penetrates to its deepest mysteries. It underscores that there is nothing about wisdom that is hidden or unknown to Him, reinforcing the unsearchable nature of His own being and ways, as seen in passages like [Romans 11:33](/romans/11-33 "Romans 11:33 - God's Unsearchable Judgments").

#### Verse Breakdown
* **"Then did he see it,"**: This opening clause establishes God's primary and foundational relationship with wisdom. The pronoun "he" refers unequivocally to God, and "it" refers to wisdom, the subject of the entire chapter. "See" here is not mere visual perception but profound, comprehensive understanding. It signifies that God possesses an intrinsic, exhaustive, and perfect knowledge of wisdom, perceiving its essence, its depths, and its every implication without any limitation or need for external discovery.
* **"and declare it;"**: Building on the initial comprehension, this clause indicates God's active engagement with wisdom. "Declare" (from *çâphar*) implies that God not only knows wisdom but also measures, orders, and perhaps even pronounces or establishes its principles. It suggests a deliberate act of definition and articulation, making wisdom a foundational and ordered aspect of His being and His creation. This is not a passive knowledge but an active, formative one.
* **"he prepared it,"**: This phrase emphasizes God's role as the originator and establisher of wisdom. "Prepared" (from *kûwn*) means to establish, make firm, or set in place. It conveys that wisdom is not an independent entity God encountered but something He actively constituted and made foundational. Wisdom is inherent to God's nature and was set in place by Him as a fundamental principle of the cosmos, much like an architect prepares the blueprint for a building.
* **"yea, and searched it out."**: This final clause serves as an emphatic reinforcement of God's absolute mastery over wisdom. The conjunction "yea" (or "indeed") heightens the assertion. "Searched it out" (from *châqar*) is an anthropomorphic expression that, when applied to God, signifies His perfect, exhaustive, and penetrating knowledge. It means that God's understanding of wisdom is utterly complete, leaving no stone unturned, no hidden facet unrevealed to Him. It underscores the unchallengeable depth and totality of His wisdom, contrasting sharply with humanity's limited and often frustrated search.

#### Literary Devices
Job 28:27, though concise, employs several powerful **literary devices** to convey its profound theological message. The most prominent is **Anthropomorphism**, where human actions and attributes ("see," "declare," "prepared," "searched it out") are ascribed to God. This device makes God's relationship with the abstract concept of wisdom more relatable and comprehensible to human readers, emphasizing the active, deliberate, and exhaustive nature of His knowledge, rather than a passive or incomplete understanding. The verse also utilizes **Parallelism** through its series of verbs, each building upon the last to create a cumulative effect of God's complete mastery over wisdom. The progression from "see" (comprehension) to "declare" (ordering/articulation) to "prepared" (establishment) and finally "searched it out" (exhaustive knowledge) forms a powerful rhetorical climax, underscoring the totality of God's interaction with wisdom. Furthermore, the entire chapter, culminating in this verse, functions as a **Hymn to Wisdom**, elevating wisdom to a divine attribute and demonstrating its inaccessibility to human effort, thereby setting the stage for the revelation of God's unique possession of it. This makes the verse a **Climax** of the chapter's central argument, providing the definitive answer to the question posed at the beginning of the interlude: "Where then does wisdom come from?" ([Job 28:20](/job/28-20 "Job 28:20 - Where Does Wisdom Come From?")).

### THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 28:27 stands as a cornerstone in biblical theology, asserting God's exclusive ownership and comprehensive understanding of wisdom. This profound truth underscores that true wisdom is not a human construct or discovery but a divine attribute, inherent in God's very nature and foundational to His creative and redemptive acts. It challenges human autonomy in the pursuit of ultimate knowledge, redirecting our gaze from self-reliance to divine revelation. This verse establishes that wisdom is not merely an intellectual capacity but an ordering principle, meticulously established and known by God, which governs the cosmos and provides the framework for all true understanding. It implies that any genuine wisdom accessible to humanity must ultimately derive from this divine source, shaping our approach to knowledge with humility and dependence on God's revealed truth.

* [Proverbs 8:22](/proverbs/8-22 "Proverbs 8:22 - Wisdom's Role in Creation"): This passage personifies wisdom as present with God at creation, establishing the world, echoing Job 28:27's emphasis on God "preparing" and "searching out" wisdom as foundational to His work.
* [Romans 11:33](/romans/11-33 "Romans 11:33 - God's Unsearchable Judgments"): Paul exclaims about the unsearchable depths of God's wisdom and knowledge, reinforcing the idea that God's understanding is beyond human comprehension, much like His exhaustive knowledge of wisdom in Job 28:27.
* [1 Corinthians 1:24](/1_corinthians/1-24 "1 Corinthians 1:24 - Christ the Power and Wisdom of God"): This New Testament verse directly identifies Christ as "the power of God and the wisdom of God," providing the ultimate fulfillment of the Old Testament's quest for divine wisdom.

### REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 28:27 offers a profound call to humility and a reorientation of our pursuit of wisdom. In a world that often prizes human ingenuity, intellectual prowess, and the accumulation of knowledge, this verse reminds us that ultimate wisdom—the kind that truly orders life, brings peace, and provides lasting understanding—resides solely with God. Our most diligent efforts to "mine" truth from the world, while valuable in their own sphere, will always fall short of grasping the divine wisdom that undergirds all existence. Therefore, true wisdom for humanity is not found in discovering it ourselves, but in receiving it from its divine source. This necessitates a posture of dependence, acknowledging God's sovereignty and seeking His revealed truth. It compels us to recognize that the "fear of the Lord," as articulated in [Job 28:28](/job/28-28 "Job 28:28 - The Fear of the Lord is Wisdom"), is not a fearful dread but a reverent submission to the One who alone comprehends and establishes all wisdom. This reverence leads to obedience and a life aligned with His divine principles, which are graciously unveiled in His Word.

#### Questions for Reflection
* **How does the realization that God alone possesses and comprehends true wisdom impact your personal pursuit of knowledge and understanding?**
* **In what ways might our modern society, with its vast access to information, inadvertently diminish the unique and transcendent nature of divine wisdom?**
* **If God "prepared" and "searched out" wisdom, how does this inform your trust in His design for the world and His plans for your life?**
* **How can you cultivate a greater "fear of the Lord" (reverent awe and submission) as the pathway to accessing the wisdom that God has declared and established?**

### FAQ
**What does "it" refer to in Job 28:27?**

Answer: In Job 28:27, the pronoun "it" unequivocally refers to "wisdom," which is the central theme and subject of the entire chapter. The chapter begins by exploring where wisdom can be found, contrasting it with precious earthly treasures that humanity can mine and acquire. It repeatedly states that wisdom's value is beyond any earthly price and its location is hidden from all living creatures and even the realm of the dead. Therefore, when [Job 28:27](/job/28-27 "Job 28:27 - God's Exclusive Knowledge of Wisdom") declares that God "saw it, and declared it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out," it is affirming that God alone possesses, comprehends, and establishes this ultimate, transcendent wisdom that humanity cannot discover on its own.

**Why does the verse say God "searched it out" if He is omniscient and already knows everything?**

Answer: The phrase "searched it out" (Hebrew: *châqar*) when applied to God is an example of **anthropomorphism**, attributing a human action or characteristic to God to help us understand a divine truth. For humans, *châqar* implies investigation, exploration, or discovery, a process of learning something new. However, for an omniscient God, who knows all things perfectly and inherently, it does not imply a process of discovery or a lack of prior knowledge. Instead, when used in reference to God, "searched it out" emphasizes the absolute thoroughness, depth, and exhaustiveness of His knowledge concerning wisdom. It means that God's understanding of wisdom is utterly complete, penetrating to its deepest mysteries, leaving no aspect unknown or uncomprehended by Him. It underscores that His wisdom is not superficial but profoundly intricate and perfectly understood by Him alone, reinforcing the idea that His "judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out" ([Romans 11:33](/romans/11-33 "Romans 11:33 - God's Unsearchable Judgments")).

**How does Job 28:27 relate to the overall message of the Book of Job?**

Answer: [Job 28:27](/job/28-27 "Job 28:27 - God's Exclusive Knowledge of Wisdom") is a pivotal verse that provides the climactic answer to the central question of the Book of Job's wisdom interlude: Where can true wisdom be found? Throughout the preceding dialogues, Job and his friends have grappled with the problem of suffering and divine justice, often appealing to human understanding and traditional wisdom. [Chapter 28](/job/28 "Job 28 - Where Can Wisdom Be Found?"), culminating in this verse, shifts the perspective by asserting that ultimate wisdom is not accessible through human reason or experience alone; it belongs exclusively to God. This sets the stage for God's eventual appearance in [Job 38-41](/job/38 "Job 38 - The Lord Answers Job"), where He demonstrates His unchallengeable wisdom and power through His creation, rather than providing a direct explanation for Job's suffering. The verse thus prepares the reader for the humbling realization that human understanding is limited and that true wisdom lies in reverent submission to God's incomprehensible sovereignty, as echoed in [Job 28:28](/job/28-28 "Job 28:28 - The Fear of the Lord is Wisdom"): "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."

### CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job 28:27, in its declaration of God's exclusive and comprehensive possession of wisdom, finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. While the Old Testament often personifies wisdom as a divine attribute present with God at creation, as seen in [Proverbs 8:22-31](/proverbs/8-22-31 "Proverbs 8:22-31 - Wisdom's Role in Creation"), the New Testament reveals that this divine wisdom is not merely an abstract concept but is fully embodied in the Son of God. Paul explicitly states that Christ "is the power of God and the wisdom of God" ([1 Corinthians 1:24](/1_corinthians/1-24 "1 Corinthians 1:24 - Christ the Power and Wisdom of God")), and that "in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" ([Colossians 2:3](/colossians/2-3 "Colossians 2:3 - In Christ are Hidden all Treasures of Wisdom")). Just as Job 28:27 asserts that God "saw," "declared," "prepared," and "searched out" wisdom, so too is Christ the perfect expression and embodiment of that divine wisdom. He is the Word through whom all things were made ([John 1:1-3](/john/1-1-3 "John 1:1-3 - The Word Was God")), the very blueprint and active agent of creation, reflecting the wisdom that God established from eternity. Therefore, the human quest for wisdom, so eloquently depicted as futile apart from God in Job 28, culminates in an encounter with Jesus, for to know Him is to know the very wisdom of God made manifest, providing not only understanding but also redemption and life.

Note: Commentary is generated by AI with a directive for Biblical fidelity. Always rely on the Holy Spirit for discernment. The Scripture text and cross-references are from verified, non-AI sources.

Cross-References

Psalms 19:1

¶ To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Proverbs 8:22

¶ The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

Proverbs 8:29

When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: