Job 28:22

Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) Destruction and death say.—That destruction and death should have heard the fame of wisdom is natural, as it consists in departing from the evil which leads to their abode.

Benson Commentary

Job 28:22. Destruction and death — Either, 1st, Men that are dead, and thereby freed from the encumbrance of their bodies, which depressed their minds, and whose faculties are more raised and enlarged than those of men still in the body; or, rather, 2d, The grave, the habitation of the dead, to which these things are here ascribed, as they are to the depths and to the sea, Job 28:14, by a common figure. These inward recesses of the earth are as little acquainted with this wisdom as the upper regions: and had they a tongue they could only say, We have heard the fame thereof — We know it only by slight and uncertain rumours. But though they cannot give an account of it themselves, yet there is a world, on which these dark regions border, where we shall see it clearly. Have patience, says death, I will fetch thee shortly to a place where even this wisdom shall be found. When the veil of flesh is rent, and the interposing clouds are scattered, we shall know what God doth, though we know not now.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

28:20-28 There is a two-fold wisdom; one hid in God, which is secret, and belongs not to us; the other made known by him, and revealed to man. One day's events, and one man's affairs, have such reference to, and so hang one upon another, that He only, to whom all is open, and who sees the whole at one view, can rightly judge of every part. But the knowledge of God's revealed will is within our reach, and will do us good. Let man look upon this as his wisdom, To fear the Lord, and to depart from evil. Let him learn that, and he is learned enough. Where is this wisdom to be found? The treasures of it are hid in Christ, revealed by the word, received by faith, through the Holy Ghost. It will not feed pride or vanity, or amuse our vain curiosity. It teaches and encourages sinners to fear the Lord, and to depart from evil, in the exercise of repentance and faith, without desiring to solve all difficulties about the events of this life.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Destruction - This is a personification which is exceedingly sublime. Job had spoken of the wonderful discoveries made by science, but none of them had disclosed true wisdom. It had not been discovered in the shaft which the miner sank deep in the earth; in the hidden regions which he laid open to day, nor by the birds that saw to the farthest distance, or that were regarded as the interpreters of the will of the gods. It was natural to ask whether it might not have been discovered in the vast profound of the nether world - the regions of death and of night; and whether by making a bold appeal to the king that reigned there, a response might not be heard that would be more satisfactory. In Job 28:14, the appeal had been made to the sea - with all its vast stores; here the appeal is to far deeper regions - to the nether world of darkness and of death. On the word used here (אבדון 'ăbaddôn), "destruction," see the notes at Job 26:6. It is employed here, as in that place, to denote the nether world - the abode of departed spirits - the world where those are who have been destroyed by death, and to which the destruction of the grave is the entrance.

And death - Death is used here to denote "Sheol," or the abode of the spirits of the dead. The sense is, that those deep and dark regions had simply heard the distant report of wisdom but they did not understand it, and that if one went down there it would not be fully revealed to him. Perhaps there is an allusion to the natural expectation that, if one could go down and converse with the dead, he could find out much more than can be known on earth. It was to be presumed that they would understand much more about the unseen and future world, and about the plans and government of God, than man can know here. It was on this belief, and on the hope that some league or alliance could be made with the dead, inducing them to communicate what they knew, that the science of necromancy was founded; see the notes at Isaiah 8:19.

We have heard the fame thereof - We have heard the report of it, or a rumor of it. The meaning is, that they did not understand it fully, and that if man could penetrate to those dark regions, he could not get the information which he desired. Wisdom is still at such an immense distance that it is only a report, or rumor of it, which has reached us.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. That is, the abodes of destruction and of the dead. "Death" put for Sheol (Job 30:23; 26:6; Ps 9:13).

We have [only] heard—the report of her. We have not seen her. In the land of the living (Job 28:13) the workings of Wisdom are seen, though not herself. In the regions of the dead she is only heard of, her actings on nature not being seen (Ec 9:10).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Destruction and death; either,

1. Men that are dead, and thereby freed from the encumbrance of their bodies, which depress their minds, and have more raised thoughts than men that live here. Or,

2. The grave, the place of the dead, to which these things are here ascribed, as they are to the depths, and to the sea, Job 28:14, by a figure called prosopopaeia. If a man should search for this wisdom, either amongst living men, or amongst the dead, he could not find it; yea, though he should and might inquire of all men that formerly lived in the world, some of whom were persons of prodigious wit and learning, and of vast experience, as having lived nigh a thousand years, and made it their great business in that time to search out the depths of this Divine wisdom in the administration of the world.

We have heard the fame thereof; we know it only by slight and uncertain rumours, but not fully and perfectly.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Destruction and death say,.... Meaning the dead that are in the pit of destruction, the grave; not their dead bodies there, devoid of life and sense, and know not anything, but their souls; either the damned in hell, or the saints in heaven: the Targum is, the house of destruction, and the angel of death; or rather it regards such as are dead, who while alive had only a report of this wisdom; wherefore if their records and writings, or traditions handed down from them, are inquired into, the result of the information they will give concerning it will amount to no more than this:

we have heard the fame thereof with our ears; it has been reported to us there is such wisdom, but what it is we know not; and this is all that we can say about it.

Geneva Study Bible

Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. destruction and death] Heb. Abaddon and Death. Abaddon is Sheol, the realm of the dead, here personified, as also is Death. Comp. Revelation 1:18; Revelation 9:11, and see on ch. Job 26:6.

the fame thereof] i. e. the report or rumour thereof. Destruction and Death have only heard of Wisdom, they have no knowledge of it, much less is it to be found with them. It is not true, alas! in this sense that

There must be wisdom with great Death.

The words “we have heard the report thereof” ascribe neither a less nor a greater knowledge of Wisdom to Death than the living possess. Both are equally ignorant of it, and equally without it. As Job 28:13-14 told how Wisdom was nowhere to be found in the upper world so Job 28:22 states that it is not to be found in the under world. The process of exhaustion is complete: Wisdom is nowhere to be found, neither in the bowels of the earth nor in the markets of mankind, in the deep nor in the sea; neither in the land of the living nor in the place of the dead.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. "Death and destruction" seem to represent the inhabitants of Sheol - the world of the departed. Job personifies them, and represents them as saying, that in their gloomy and remote abode (Job 10:21, 22) they have heard some dim rumour, some vague report, of the "place" of wisdom and understanding, the nature of which, however, they do not communicate to him. His idea seems to be that their knowledge on the subject does not much transcend the knowledge of living men, whom he regards as profoundly ignorant with respect to it. He thus prepares the way for his assertion in the next verse. Man, neither living nor dead, can make any answer to the great question raised; but - Job 28:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

21 It is veiled from the eyes of all living,

And concealed from the fowls of heaven.

22 Destruction and death say:

With our ears we heard a report of it. -

23 Elohim understandeth the way to it,

And He - He knoweth its place.

24 For He looketh to the ends of the earth,

Under the whole heaven He seeth.

No living created being (כּל־חי, as Job 12:10; Job 30:23) is able to answer the question; even the birds that fly aloft, that have keener and farther-seeing eyes than man, can give us no information concerning wisdom; and the world at least proclaims its existence in a rich variety of its operations, but in the realm of Abaddon and of death below (comp. the combination שׁאול ואבדון, Proverbs 15:11, ᾅδου καὶ τοῦ θανάτου, Revelation 1:18) it is known only by an indistinct hearsay, and from confused impressions. Therefore: no creature, whether in the realm of the living or the dead, can help us to get wisdom. There is but One who possesses a perfect knowledge concerning wisdom, namely Elohim, whose gave extends to the ends of the earth, and who sees under the whole heaven, i.e., is everywhere present (תּחת, definition of place, not equivalent to אשׁר תּחת; comp. on Job 24:9), who therefore, after the removal of everything earthly (sub-celestial), alone remains. And why should He with His knowledge, which embraces everything, not also know the way and place of wisdom? Wisdom is indeed the ideal, according to which He has created the world.