And he said to mankind, ‘The fear of the Lord ¹  – that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” ² 

biblegateway Job 28:28

"And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.’"

He said to mankind, "Look! The fear of the Lord--that is wisdom, and to turn from evil is understanding."

So he told humans, ‘The fear of the Lord is wisdom! To stay away from evil is understanding.’"

biblegateway Job 28:28

And he said to man, ‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.’"

And he said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.'"

bibleoremus Job 28:28

And he said to humankind, ‘Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’"

And he said to mankind: “The fear of the Lord is wisdom, and to turn from evil, that is understanding!”

biblegateway Job 28:28

And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’"

And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that [is] wisdom; and to depart from evil [is] understanding.

biblegateway Job 28:28

And he said to mankind, ‘The fear of the Lord ¹  – that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” ² 

¹ tc A number of medieval Hebrew manuscripts have YHWH (“Lord”); BHS has אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”). As J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 383) points out, this is the only occurrence of אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”) in the book of Job, creating doubt for retaining it. Normally, YHWH is avoided in the book. “Fear of” (יִרְאַת, yir’at) is followed by שַׁדַּי (shadday, “Almighty”) in 6:14 – the only other occurrence of this term for “fear” in construct with a divine title.

² tc Many commentators delete this verse because (1) many read the divine name Yahweh (translated “Lord”) here, and (2) it is not consistent with the argument that precedes it. But as H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 185) points out, there is inconsistency in this reasoning, for many of the critics have already said that this chapter is an interpolation. Following that line of thought, then, one would not expect it to conform to the rest of the book in this matter of the divine name. And concerning the second difficulty, the point of this chapter is that wisdom is beyond human comprehension and control. It belongs to God alone. So the conclusion that the fear of the Lord is wisdom is the necessary conclusion. Rowley concludes: “It is a pity to rob the poem of its climax and turn it into the expression of unrelieved agnosticism.”