Job 27:23

It claps ^{▼▼ If the same subject is to be carried through here, it is the wind. That would make this a bold personification, perhaps suggesting the force of the wind. Others argue that it is unlikely that the wind claps its hands. They suggest taking the verb with an indefinite subject: “he claps” means “one claps. The idea is that of people rejoicing when the wicked are gone. But the parallelism is against this unless the second line is changed as well. R. Gordis (Job, 296) has “men will clap their hands…men will whistle upon him.”} its hands at him in derision
and hisses him away from his place. ^{▼▼ Or “hisses at him from its place” (ESV).}
23

III. Job’s Search for Wisdom (28:1-28)

No Known Road to Wisdom

^{▼▼ As the book is now arranged, this chapter forms an additional speech by Job, although some argue that it comes from the writer of the book. The mood of the chapter is not despair, but wisdom; it anticipates the divine speeches in the end of the book. This poem, like many psalms in the Bible, has a refrain (vv. 12 and 20). These refrains outline the chapter, giving three sections: there is no known road to wisdom (1–11); no price can buy it (12–19); and only God has it, and only by revelation can man posses it (20–28).}