¹ Silver has its mines, and gold a place for refining.

² Iron is extracted from the earth, the smelted rocks yield copper.

³ Man makes an end of darkness, to the utmost limit he digs the black rock in shadow dark as death.

⁴ Foreigners bore into ravines in unfrequented places, swinging suspended far from human beings.

⁵ That earth from which bread comes is ravaged underground by fire.

⁶ There, the rocks have veins of sapphire and their dust contains gold.

⁷ That is a path unknown to birds of prey, unseen by the eye of any vulture;

⁸ a path not trodden by the lordly beasts, where no lion ever walked.

⁹ Man attacks the flint, upturning mountains by their roots.

¹⁰ He cuts canals through the rock, on the watch for anything precious.

¹¹ He explores the sources of rivers, bringing hidden things to light.

¹² But where does Wisdom come from? Where is Intelligence to be found?

¹³ No human being knows the way to her, she is not to be found on earth where they live.

¹⁴ 'She is not in me,' says the Abyss; 'Nor here,' replies the Sea.

¹⁵ She cannot be bought with solid gold, nor paid for with any weight of silver,

¹⁶ nor valued against gold of Ophir, precious agate or sapphire.

¹⁷ Neither gold nor glass compares with her, for her, a vase of fine gold would be no exchange,

¹⁸ let alone coral or crystal: better go fishing for Wisdom than for pearls!

¹⁹ Topaz from Cush is worthless in comparison, and gold, even refined, is valueless.

²⁰ But where does Wisdom come from? Where is Intelligence to be found?

²¹ She cannot be seen by any living creature, she is hidden from the birds of the sky.

²² Perdition and Death both say, 'We have heard only rumours of her.'

²³ God alone understands her path and knows where she is to be found.

²⁴ (For he sees to the remotest parts of the earth, and observes all that lies under heaven.)

²⁵ When he willed to give weight to the wind and measured out the waters with a gauge,

²⁶ when he imposed a law on the rain and mapped a route for thunderclaps to follow,

²⁷ then he saw and evaluated her, looked her through and through, assessing her.

²⁸ Then he said to human beings, 'Wisdom? - that is fear of the Lord; Intelligence? - avoidance of evil.'