August 21, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The Book of Job is listed among the Wisdom books in the Bible. So part of my mission with the July Quarterly Discussion was to better understand what wisdom it imparts.
Chapters 28 and 32 of the Book of Job are the only chapters that directly address wisdom, according to the Syntopicon. Chapter 28 falls under the following subcategories: “Theological and mystical wisdom: the supernatural wisdom of faith and vision; the gift of wisdom” and “The wisdom of God: the defect of human wisdom compared with divine wisdom; the folly or vanity of worldly wisdom.” Chapter 32 (specifically verses 7-9) addresses: “The love of wisdom and the steps to wisdom: the sophist, the philosopher, and the wise man.”
Because it has been listed as a book of wisdom, I was surprised to only find those few mentions in the Syntopicon. Moreover, the “Wisdom” chapter is one of the shortest in the Syntopicon with only four subcategories. Since people speak of wisdom with reverence and enthusiasm, with awe and desire, the shortness of the chapter also surprised me. Don’t humans have more to say about wisdom?
In fact, the Book of Job may be a good example as to why the “Wisdom” chapter is so short. In truth, humans don’t really have much to say about wisdom because we don’t fully understand its nature. Job explains this best when he responds to his three friends with beautiful poetry in chapter 28. In it, mining becomes a metaphor of God’s greatness.
Chapter 28 begins (New American Bible (Revised Edition)):
1 There is indeed a mine for silver,/ and a place for refining gold.
2 Iron is taken from the earth,/ and copper smelted out of stone.
3 He sets a boundary for the darkness;/ the farthest confines he explores.
4 He breaks open a shaft far from habitation,/ unknown to human feet;/ suspended, far from people, they sway.
5 The earth, though out of it comes forth bread,/ is in fiery upheaval underneath.
Job hints that nature is beyond our capacity to understand, that God has placed minerals within our reach and called our attention to them, but he has not explained how they came to be. In other words, we interact with the earth on a human level, not a divine one.
Chapter 28 continues:
11 He dams up the sources of the streams,/ and brings hidden things to light.
12 As for wisdom—where can she be found?/ Where is the place of understanding?
13 Mortals do not know her path,/ nor is she to be found in the land of the living.
Job wonders why God allows some things to surface but not others. Why are humans kept in the dark? His question also silences the friends who, for all their talking, have yet to find wisdom or understanding. In their lectures, they sometimes appeared to speak for God as if they knew more than Job. But the reader knows: they are no closer to wisdom than Job. This is not entirely their fault, of course, because wisdom is divine. Also, as I mentioned in my first blog on Job, Mortimer Adler believes that “the individual may grow in wisdom. The race does not seem to.”
So, Job finds himself surrounded by people who claim to be his friends, who claim to want to help him, but do not listen to him. Instead, they rail away with advice and shame. Since these friends have only increased Job’s pain, I find their approach to be the opposite of wise. Rather, listening might have been a better path.
Then Elihu appears. Elihu finds fault with everyone who has spoken thus far. Chapter 32 reads:
2 He [Elihu] was angry with Job for considering himself rather than God to be in the right. 3 He was angry also with the three friends because they had not found a good answer and had not condemned Job.
Though Elihu acknowledges Job’s complaints, he too does not have an answer. Rather than looking for answers, though, he simply reminds everyone of God’s greatness. In chapter 32 Elihu says,
12 God is greater than mortals.
13 Why, then, do you make complaint against him/ that he gives no reply to their words?
14 For God does speak, once,/ even twice, though you do not see it
In other words, God speaks through the ways of nature. If humans struggle to comprehend, it is because their view is too small, too limited, too minute. Humans cannot understand why things happen, only that they do. Near the end of Elihu’s lengthy lecture, he says that God makes things happen for punishment or mercy or other reasons too. The important point is that God causes change for reasons beyond our understanding. While this may not ameliorate any of Job’s complaints, it comforts more than any of the previous friends have done simply for the fact that Elihu acknowledged Job’s complaints. And Elihu doesn’t blame Job.
Elihu’s speech prefaces God’s actual appearance in chapter 38. Just as he described, God arrives as a storm and speaks through a whirlwind. As I mentioned in a previous blog, God doesn’t answer any questions as to why. He simply reminds Job of his awesomeness.
Elihu’s actions grant some version of wisdom. He listens to Job, acknowledges his complaint, provides no answers or advice, but reminds everyone of God’s greatness. Also, Elihu speaks to the crowd, not to Job alone. Elihu admits that Job’s plight is not unique to him. Anyone might be in his place at any time.
This book shows me that it is good to have dialogue, to participate within a community, to seek knowledge outside of your own experience, to accept with and work within reality as it is presented, and to listen. These five things don’t immediately grant wisdom, but they might lead to empathy which I place among the highest of human virtues. Perhaps human wisdom means that we understand human virtues, whereas divine wisdom comprehends the nature of everything else.
You can find the previous blogs in this series here: 1] https://hmu.edu/the-plight-of-job/ and 2] https://hmu.edu/job-and-his-wife/
Photo credit: Shutterstock/ houchi
