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Journey of a Passage

Job 28:28

"The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom"

The poem's conclusion is stable: "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." The Hebrew uses Adonai, its only use in Job; the library's Greek reads "piety" (theosebeia, Giguet "la piété").

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original JobPoem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Job
Aramaic
    Greek and its daughters
    1. Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)Printed Septuagint; translated 1872Translated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen
    Latin
    1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 390s, from HebrewTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Poem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)

      Original Job

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. Small Hebrew fragments of Job are known from Qumran (2Q15, 4Q99–101).

    2. c. AD 390s, from Hebrew

      Jerome's Vulgate

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Et dixit homini: Ecce timor Domini, ipsa est sapientia; et recedere a malo, intelligentia.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Job

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      וַיֹּ֤אמֶר ׀ לָֽאָדָ֗ם הֵ֤ן יִרְאַ֣ת אֲ֭דֹנָי הִ֣יא חָכְמָ֑ה וְס֖וּר מֵרָ֣ע בִּינָֽה׃

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

    5. Printed Septuagint; translated 1872

      Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Et il a dit à l’homme: La sagesse, c’est la piété; et s’abtenir du mal, c’est la science.

      Greek via Giguet's French (filled-out printed text); not checked against Ziegler's critical edition.

    What changed, and why

    The line restates Job's character from 1:1 ("feared God, and eschewed evil") and the motto of Proverbs (1:7; 9:10). Whether chapter 28 is Job's speech or an interlude is debated.

    What the evidence shows

    • Strongly supportedJob 28:28 uses Adonai. Some manuscripts read YHWH.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? →A poem in three movements. Humans dig mines for silver, gold, iron and copper; they cut shafts far from people, dangle on ropes, overturn mountains, bring hidden things to light, ways no bird of prey has seen. "But where shall wisdom be found?" It cannot be bought with gold of Ophir, onyx, sapphire, coral or topaz of Ethiopia. The deep and the sea say it is not in them; Abaddon and Death have only heard a rumour. God alone knows its place, and said to humanity: "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."