Job 28:21

Good News Translation

No living creature can see it, Not even a bird in flight.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thingand concealed from the birds of the sky.

Hebrew Names Version
Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, And kept close from the birds of the sky.

King James Version
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

English Standard Version
It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air.

New Century Version
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, even from the birds of the air.

New English Translation
For it has been hidden from the eyes of every living creature, and from the birds of the sky it has been concealed.

Amplified Bible
"It is hidden from the eyes of all the living And concealed from the birds of the heavens.

New American Standard Bible
"It is hidden from the eyes of every living creature, And concealed from the birds of the sky.

World English Bible
Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, And kept close from the birds of the sky.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all the liuing, and is hid from the foules of the heauen?

Legacy Standard Bible
Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all livingAnd concealed from the birds of the sky.

Berean Standard Bible
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the air.

Contemporary English Version
It is hidden from human eyes and even from birds.

Complete Jewish Bible
inasmuch as it is hidden from the eyes of all living and kept secret from the birds flying around in the sky?

Darby Translation
For it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the fowl of the heavens.

Easy-to-Read Version
Wisdom is hidden from every living thing on earth. Even birds in the sky cannot see it.

George Lamsa Translation
It is hid from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the fowls of the air.

Lexham English Bible
It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and it is concealed from the birds of the heaven.

Literal Translation
Yea, it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the heavens;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
She is hyd from the eyes of all men, yee & fro the foules of the ayre.

American Standard Version
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, And kept close from the birds of the heavens.

Bible in Basic English
For it is kept secret from the eyes of all living, unseen by the birds of the air.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

King James Version (1611)
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all liuing, and kept close from the foules of the ayre.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
She is hid from the eyes of all men liuing, yea & from the foules of the ayre.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
It has escaped the notice of every man, and has been hidden from the birds of the sky.

English Revised Version
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
It is hid fro the iyen of alle lyuynge men; also it is hid fro briddis of heuene.

Update Bible Version
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, And kept close from the birds of the heavens.

Webster's Bible Translation
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

New King James Version
It is hidden from the eyes of all living, And concealed from the birds of the air.

New Living Translation
It is hidden from the eyes of all humanity. Even the sharp-eyed birds in the sky cannot discover it.

New Life Bible
It is hidden from the eyes of all living. It is hidden from the birds of the sky.

New Revised Standard
It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Seeing it hath been hid from the eyes of every living thing, and, from the bird of the heavens, hath it been concealed?

Douay-Rheims Bible
It is hid from the eyes of all living, and the fowls of the air know it not.

Revised Standard Version
It is hid from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air.

Young's Literal Translation
It hath been hid from the eyes of all living. And from the fowl of the heavens It hath been hidden.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living And concealed from the birds of the sky.

Contextual Overview

²⁰ Where, then, is the source of wisdom? Where can we learn to understand? ²¹ No living creature can see it, Not even a bird in flight. ²² Even death and destruction Admit they have heard only rumors. ²³ God alone knows the way, Knows the place where wisdom is found, ²⁴ Because he sees the ends of the earth, Sees everything under the sky. ²⁵ When God gave the wind its power And determined the size of the sea; ²⁶ When God decided where the rain would fall, And the path that the thunderclouds travel; ²⁷ It was then he saw wisdom and tested its worth— He gave it his approval. ²⁸ God said to us humans, "To be wise, you must have reverence for the Lord. To understand, you must turn from evil."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

hid: Psalms 49:3, Psalms 49:4, Matthew 11:25, Matthew 13:17, Matthew 13:35, 1 Corinthians 2:7-10, Colossians 2:3

from the fowls: Job 28:7

air: or, heaven

Reciprocal: Job 28:13 - in the land Job 37:19 - we

Cross-References

Exodus 15:2
The Lord is my strong defender; he is the one who has saved me. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will sing about his greatness.

Deuteronomy 26:17
Today you have acknowledged the Lord as your God; you have promised to obey him, to keep all his laws, and to do all that he commands.

Judges 11:31
I will burn as an offering the first person that comes out of my house to meet me, when I come back from the victory. I will offer that person to you as a sacrifice."

2 Samuel 15:8
While I was living in Geshur in Syria, I promised the Lord that if he would take me back to Jerusalem, I would worship him in Hebron."

2 Samuel 19:24
Then Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson, came down to meet the king. He had not washed his feet, trimmed his beard, or washed his clothes from the time the king left Jerusalem until he returned victorious.

2 Samuel 19:30
"Let Ziba have it all," Mephibosheth answered. "It's enough for me that Your Majesty has come home safely."

2 Kings 5:17
So Naaman said, "If you won't accept my gift, then let me have two mule-loads of earth to take home with me, because from now on I will not offer sacrifices or burnt offerings to any god except the Lord .

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living,.... Meaning not the beasts of the field, as some interpret it; this makes the sentiment jejune and trifling; but rational creatures, men, so the Septuagint, Eve is said to be the mother of, Genesis 3:20; wisdom, as a perfection in God, displayed in his works of creation and providence, is but imperfectly known by men; and the secret reasons of his providential dealings with men, good and bad, are hid from all at present; and as for spiritual wisdom or godliness, and the Gospel of Christ, and Christ himself, they are hid from the eyes of all natural and carnal men, though ever so wise and prudent in other things:

and kept close from the fowls of the air, or "heaven" k; either the devils so called, because they dwell in the air, and are the posse or power of the air, Ephesians 2:2; and because of their ravenous and cruel disposition, and swiftness to do mischief; see Luke 8:5; or rather the holy angels, as Jarchi, whose habitation is in heaven, and who are swift to do the will of God, and are represented as having wings like fowls; though these know much, yet the wisdom of God in his providence, in the doctrines of the Gospel, and Christ himself, the Wisdom of God, are in a good measure hid from them; at least their knowledge is imperfect, and they are desirous of prying more into these things, 1 Peter 1:12: unless men of the most piercing and penetrating geniuses, that soar aloft in the things of nature, and make the greatest discoveries therein, and yet know nothing of divine and spiritual things, of the arcanas of Providence or of grace, should be meant.

k השמים "caeli", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.”

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, Ecclesiastes 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.”