Job 28:14

Job 28:14 Meaning and Explanation

The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.

King James Version (KJV)

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Even the deep and the sea, the vast unsearchable places, confess that wisdom is not found in them.

What Does Job 28:14 Mean?

Job pictures the great waters speaking. The deep, the subterranean abyss, declares, "It is not in me." The sea answers, "It is not with me." The most mysterious and unreachable regions of creation admit they do not hold wisdom.

By giving the deep and the sea a voice, Job lets creation itself testify to its limits. These are the places people most associate with hidden secrets, yet even they cannot supply understanding. Everywhere the searcher turns, the answer comes back the same: not here. The poem narrows the field until only one possibility remains. If neither the depths of the earth nor the depths of the sea contain wisdom, then it belongs to the One who made them both. Job is teaching the soul to stop searching horizontally and to look up.

Job 28:14 in the Original Language

tehom (תְּהוֹם), 'the deep' -- the primeval abyss, the vast deep waters first named in the creation account.

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What does Job 28:14 mean?

Even the deep and the sea, the vast unsearchable places, confess that wisdom is not found in them.

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