Job 28:28 - Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Man — Unto Adam in the day in which he was created. And in him, to all his posterity. Said — God spake it, at first to the mind of man, in which he wrote this with his own finger, and afterwards by the holy patriarchs, and prophets, and other teachers, whom he sent into the world to teach men true wisdom. Behold — Which expression denotes the great importance of this doctrine, and withal man's backwardness to apprehend it. The fear of the Lord — True religion. Wisdom — In man's wisdom, because that, and that only, is his duty, and safety, and happiness, both for this life and for the next. Evil — From sin, which is called evil eminently, as being the chief evil, and the cause of all other evils. Religion consists of two branches, doing good, and forsaking evil; the former is expressed in the former clause of this verse, and the latter in these words; and this is the best kind of knowledge or wisdom to which man can attain in this life. The design of Job in this close of his discourse, is not to reprove the boldness of his friends, in prying into God's secrets, and passing such a rash censure upon him, and upon God's carriage towards him; but also to vindicate himself from the imputation of hypocrisy, which they fastened upon him, by shewing that he had ever esteemed it to be his best wisdom, to fear God, and to depart from evil.