Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
Parallel Translations
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Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
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Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
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Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to Job 28:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 49:3-4 My mouth will speak words of wisdom. My heart will utter understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my riddle on the harp.
- Matthew 11:25 At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.
- 1 Corinthians 2:7-10 But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.” But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
- Colossians 2:3 in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
- Matthew 13:35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.”
- Matthew 13:17 For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Meaning, that there is no natural means whereby man…
Meaning, that there is no natural means whereby man might attain to the heavenly wisdom: which he meaneth by the souls that fly high.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 28:21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes…
Job 28:21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
Ver. 21. Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living] As hath been before set forth, Job 28:13. They that see most into it see but in part, and must needs say, that the greatest part of their knowledge is the least part of their ignorance, Maxima pars eorum quae scimus est minima pars eorum quae nescimus. Something they know of his revealed will, but nothing at all of his secret. Whereunto we may add, that there are many occult qualities in nature, the reason whereof the wisest men understand not.
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And kept close from the fowls of the air] Which yet fly very high, and seem to touch the clouds of heaven; as the eagle, which delighteth in high flying. Some will have the angels (elsewhere set forth as winged creatures) to be here meant; who, although they stand always in God’s presence, and see much of his majesty, yet not at all nothing near, Isa 6:2-3, they cover their faces with their wings, as with a double scarf (as not able to behold his glory), and make their addresses unto him with greatest self-abasements.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Of all living; of all men that live upon…
Of all living; of all men that live upon the earth.
From the fowls of the air: though they fly high, and can see far and well, yet they cannot discern this: men of the most raised understandings cannot discover it. It is to be found no where in this visible world, neither in the upper nor lower parts of it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Destruction and death say,.... Meaning the dead that are…
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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Hid - The line and plummet of human reason,…
Hid - The line and plummet of human reason, can never fathom the abyss of the Divine counsels. Who can account for the maxims, measures and methods of God's government? Let us then be content, not to know the future events of providence, 'till time discover them: and not to know the secret reasons of providence, 'till eternity brings them to light.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain It is hid from the eyes of all living…
It is hid from the eyes of all living - That is, of all people, and of all animals. Man has not found it by the most sagacious of all his discoveries, and the keenest vision of beasts and fowls has not traced it out.
And kept close - Hebrew “concealed.”
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From the fowls of the air - Compare the notes at Job 28:7. Umbreit remarks, on this passage, that there is attributed to the fowls in Oriental countries a deep knowledge, and an extraordinary gift of divination, and that they appear as the interpreters and confidants of the gods. One cannot but reflect, says he, on the personification of the good spirit of Ormuzd through the fowls, according to the doctrine of the Persians (Compare Creutzer’s Symbolik Thes 1. s. 723); upon the ancient fowlking (Vogelkonig) Simurg upon the mountain Kap, representing the highest wisdom of life; upon the discourses of the fowls of the great mystic poet of the Persians, Ferideddin Attar, etc. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, also, a considerable part of their divinations consisted in observing the flight of birds, as if they were endowed with intelligence, and indicated coming events by the course which they took; compare also, Ecc 10:20, where wisdom or intelligence is ascribed to the birds of the air. “Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain None can tell whence or where, seeing it, &c.
None can tell whence or where, seeing it, &c.
fowls--The gift of divination was assigned by the heathen especially to birds. Their rapid flight heavenwards and keen sight originated the superstition. Job may allude to it. Not even the boasted divination of birds has an insight into it (Ecc 10:20). But it may merely mean, as in Job 28:7, It escapes the eye of the most keen-sighted bird.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 21. The fowls of the air — To their…
21. The fowls of the air — To their acuteness of vision and wondrous habits of migration may be due the widespread ascription to them of superior wisdom. In all their wide range of flight and vision they have never seen Wisdom’s abode.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 21. seeing it is hid] Rather simply, it is…
21. seeing it is hid] Rather simply, it is hidden. Job_28:20 as summing up Job_28:15-19 meant, thus Wisdom is nowhere to be attained; Job_28:21 proceeds, it is hidden &c.
kept close] i. e. it is concealed from, unknown to the fowls of the air (comp. Job_28:7)—no creature can attain to it.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all…
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living. Man cannot see it, because it is immaterial, but he cannot even conceive of it, because its nature transcends him. And kept close from the fowls of the air. (comp. ver. 7). The sight of birds is far keener than that of man; but even birds cannot detect where wisdom is.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.