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Job 28:21-22
21 Seeing it is hid [`alam] from the eyes [`ayin] of all living [chay], and kept close [cathar] from the fowls [`owph] of the air [shamayim].
22 Destruction ['abaddown] and death [maveth] say ['amar], We have heard [shama`] the fame [shema`] thereof with our ears ['ozen]. KJV-Interlinear
21 'Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living, And concealed from the birds of the sky. 22 'Abaddon and Death say, 'With our ears we have heard a report of it.' NASB
The birds that fly high in the air, represent the keenness of sight, the sight that can see great distances, of animals who have an advantage of their position high in the air such that they can see a more overall picture of life and of what is arranged below on the earth.
Abaddon means destruction and is a reference to death as well as a commander of demons. But here it represents the dead who lie in the deepest of depths of all of existence. Nothing is lower than the land of the dead. Nothing is more distant from life than the realm of the dead. That is the intent here.
Wisdom is still the subject. Where is it? How can it be found?
Job has already indicated that wisdom cannot be purchased, wisdom cannot be discovered, and wisdom cannot be invented by anything which man engages in within the realm of the living.
So here, mans eyes are blinded with reference to wisdom. Man cannot see it, cannot find it, cannot imagine it on his own.
Man cannot look to the animals of the planet, nor can man look to his ancestors who lie dead in their graves.
Animals have long since been an object of worship. Even back in Jobs days and as in our present day, animals, the eagle, the crow, the cow, the wolf, the bear, the lion, and so forth, all may have certain characteristics that man can be impressed with, but they are animals and nothing more.
Animals, birds and so forth, cannot discover or possess wisdom, and neither can they communicate it to man.
The dead have departed from this life. Back in Jobs day, the believers went to Paradise and the unbelievers went to Torments. These are two of the four compartments of Hades, which is the name of the underworld or the land of the dead.
Today, unbelievers still got to Torments, but believers go directly to Heaven. Paradise is no longer in use, having been evacuated by Jesus immediately after the events of the Cross. Those folks are now in Heaven.
Death is a separation from something. Physical death is a separation from life on this earth. Whether a believer or unbeliever, whether one died in Jobs day or in our current day, all who have died are absent from this world, absent from this life.
The living, do not have access to the dead. None of the mechanisms for communicating with the dead, are legitimate, and even if that were possible, what could the dead teach us? Nothing.
All wisdom comes from the Living God, from Bible doctrine. The dead have heard of wisdom, no one has any excuse for not having heard truth at some point in their life, but they do not possess it such that they can simply give or transfer it to the living.
Man does not gain wisdom from the dead. Man does not gain wisdom from animals. Man does not gain wisdom from his own imagination. Man does not gain wisdom from his own efforts. Man does not gain wisdom from his invention. Man does not gain wisdom from his beliefs, philosophies, or anything else that is convenient to how he wants life to be.
There is only one source of wisdom and that is the subject, which Job will address next.
