What Does Job 28:14 Mean?
The deep says, "It is not in me," and the sea says, "It is not with me."
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.THE KEY
Even the abyss and the sea testify that wisdom is not something the deepest places can contain.
THE MEANING
The abyss and the sea speak as the vastest places the mind can reach, yet neither holds wisdom. Their answer marks a limit: depth and vastness are not the same as understanding.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The deepest or most hidden place must contain the wisdom I seek.
THE ROOT
תְּהוֹם
tehom
GROWS FROM
תהם
the abyss, the deep
The Hebrew word points to the abyss, not merely to a measurable depth. Paired with the sea, it makes the testimony expansive: neither the primordial deep nor the open waters contain wisdom.
ALSO GROWS
tehomot: depths, abysses
תְּהֹמוֹת
Proverbs 8:24 uses this plural for depths that did not yet exist when Wisdom was brought forth.
tehom rabbah: the great deep
תְּהוֹם רַבָּה
The phrase names the deep as an immense force; Job’s verse says even this vastness cannot claim wisdom as its own.
אָמַר
amar
GROWS FROM
אמר
to say, speak
“saith” in this verse is amar. The Hebrew repeats amar for both the deep and the sea, giving them parallel voices. Together they testify to the same limit: wisdom is not contained in either.
ALSO GROWS
imrah: utterance, saying
אִמְרָה
This noun carries speech as expressed content, echoing the deep’s clear testimony that wisdom is not in it.
omer: speech, utterance
אֹמֶר
This related form makes the repeated speech more than scenery: the deep and sea each give an answer.
THE PATTERN
The deepest created places do not contain wisdom; its source and reach exceed what creation can hold.
When there are no depths, I am brought forth in labor; when there are no springs heavy with waters.God discerns its way, and he perceives its place.O the depth of the riches of both wisdom and knowledge of God! How beyond searching out are his judgments, and how beyond tracking are his ways!THE THREAD
When there are no depths, I am brought forth in labor; when there are no springs heavy with waters.The Hebrew word for “depths,” tehomot, shares the root of Job’s tehom. Here Wisdom is brought forth before the depths exist, opening Job’s claim further: the abyss can speak, but it is not wisdom’s source.
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