Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 28:23

"God understandeth the way thereof, And he knoweth the place thereof." — Job 28:23 (ASV)

God understandeth the way thereof. —God is the author of wisdom, and His fear is its beginning. Therefore, with His infinite knowledge of the universe, He must be aware of its place and way.

It is to be observed that while the foundation of wisdom is said to be as old as that of the world, the very existence of wisdom in relation to man implied the existence of evil. This is because, unless by departing from evil, man could have no wisdom, though evil itself may undoubtedly involve and imply a deflection from a previously existing right.

Wrong, for example, is what is wrung aside from the right. The two ideas Job starts with are man’s ignorance of the price and the place of wisdom. Neither he nor nature knows its place—not all living things, nor the deep, nor the sea. As for its price, though man is prepared to give any high price for the costly stones and jewels of the earth, yet all that he has to give cannot be compared to the value of wisdom.

Wisdom, however, can be purchased by the poor, as we may infer from the language of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 55:1)—or, at any rate, that which ranks with wisdom. Similarly, Christ represented the kingdom of heaven as a pearl of great price, which would demand all that a man had to buy it; and yet He represented the poor as those to whom it was especially preached.

It is true that the wisdom of which Job speaks (Job 28:28) is in no way connected with the Gospel of the kingdom. Yet, if the words of the wise are indeed given from one Shepherd, it is impossible not to recognize a central thought underlying all such words—if not in the separate minds of the wise at heart, then in the original mind of the one Shepherd. So we can see that what is true of wisdom as described by Job is illustrated by what is true of the Gospel of the kingdom and of the evangelical promises of Isaiah.