Job 28:22 - Exposition

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 , Job 10:22 ) 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—