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Selected Verse: Job 28:1 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Job 28:1	Strong Concordance	Surely [03426] there is a vein [04161] for the silver [03701], and a place [04725] for gold [02091] where they fine [02212] it.
	King James	Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
JOB'S SPEECH CONTINUED. (Job 28:1-28) vein--a mine, from which it goes forth, Hebrew, "is dug." place for gold--a place where gold may be found, which men refine. Not as English Version, "A place--where," (Mal 3:3). Contrasted with gold found in the bed and sand of rivers, which does not need refining; as the gold dug from a mine does. Golden ornaments have been found in Egypt, of the times of Joseph.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

JOB'S SPEECH CONTINUED. (Job 28:1-28)

vein--a mine, from which it goes forth, Hebrew, "is dug."

place for gold--a place where gold may be found, which men refine. Not as English Version, "A place--where," (Mal 3:3). Contrasted with gold found in the bed and sand of rivers, which does not need refining; as the gold dug from a mine does. Golden ornaments have been found in Egypt, of the times of Joseph.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Surely there is a vein for silver - Margin, "mine" Coverdale renders this, "There are places where silver is molten." Prof. Lee renders it, "There is an outlet for the silver," and supposes it means the coming out or separation of the silver from the earthy particles by which it is surrounded in the ore, not the coming out from the mine. The word rendered "vein" (מוצא môtsâ') means properly a going forth, as the rising of the sun, Psa 19:6; the promulgation of an edict Dan 9:25; then a place of going forth - as a gate, door; Eze 42:11; Eze 43:11, and thence a mine, a vein, or a place of the going forth of metals; that is, a place where they are procured. So the Septuagint here, Ἔστι γὰρ άργυρίῳ τό πος ὅθεν γίνεται Esti gar arguriō topos hothen ginetai - "there is a place for silver whence it is obtained." The idea here is that man had evinced his wisdom in finding out the mines of silver and working them. It was one of the instances of his skill that he had been able to penetrate into the earth, and bring out the ore of the precious metals, and convert it to valuable purposes. And a place for gold - A workshop, or laboratory, for working the precious metals. Job says, that even in his time such a laboratory was a proof of the wisdom of man. So now, one of the most striking proofs of skill is to be found in the places where the precious metals are purified, and worked into the various forms in which they are adapted to ornament and use. Where they fine it - - יזקו yāzoqû. The word used here (זקק zâqaq) means properly to bind fast, to fetter; and then to compress, to squeeze through a strainer; and hence, to strain, filter; and thence to purify - as wine that is thus filtered, or gold that is purified Mal 3:3. It may refer here to any process of purifying or refining. It is commonly done by the application of heat. One of the instructive uses of the book of Job is the light which it throws incidentally on the state of the ancient arts and sciences, and the condition of society in reference to the comforts of life at the early period of the world when the author lived. In this passage it is clear: (1) that the metals were then in general use, and (2) that they were so worked as to furnish, in the view of Job a striking illustration of human wisdom and skill. Society was so far advanced as to make use not only of gold and silver, but also of copper and brass. The use of gold and silver commonly precedes the discovery of iron, and consequently the mention of iron in any ancient book indicates a considerably advanced state of society. It is of course, not known to what extent the art of working metals was carried in the time of Job, as all that would be indicated here would be that the method of obtaining the pure metal from the ore was understood. It may be interesting, however, to observe, that the art was early known to the Egyptians, and was carried by them to a considerable degree of perfection. Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in vestures of fine linen, and put a chain of gold about his neck; Gen 41:42, and great quantities of gold and silver ornaments were borrowed by the Israelites of the Egyptians, when they were about to go to the promised land. Gold and silver are mentioned as known in the earliest ages; compare Gen 2:11-12; Gen 41:42; Exo 20:23; Gen 23:15-16. Iron is also mentioned as having been early known; Gen 4:22. Tubal Cain was instructor in iron and brass. Gold and silver mines were early worked in Egypt, and if Moses was the compiler of the book of Job, it is possible that some of the descriptions here may have been derived from that country, and at all events the mode of working these precious metals was probably the same in Arabia and Egypt. From the mention of ear rings, bracelets, and jewels of silver and gold, in the days of Abraham, it is evident that the art of metallurgy was known at a very remote period. Workmen are noticed by Homer as excelling in the manufacture of arms, rich vases, and other objects inlaid or ornamented with vessels: Πηλείδης δ ̓ ἆιψ ἄλλα τίθει ταχυτῆτος ἄεθλα, Αργύρεον κρατῆρα τετυγμειον. Pēleidēs d' aips alla tithei tachutēnos aethla, Argirepm kratēra tetugmeion. Iliad xxiii. 741. His account of the shield of Achilles (Iliad xviii. 474) proves that the art of working in the precious metals was well known in his time; and the skill required to delineate the various objects which he describes was such as no ordinary artisan, even at this time, could be supposed to possess. In Egypt, ornaments of gold and silver, consisting of rings, bracelets, necklaces, and trinkets, have been found in considerable abundance of the times of Osirtasen I, and Thothmes III, the contemporaries of Joseph and of Moses. Diodorus (i. 49) mentions silver mine of Egypt which produced 3,200 myriads of minae. The gold mines of Egypt remained long unknown, and their position has been ascertained only a few years since by M. Linant and M. Bonomi. They lie in the Bisharee desert, about seventeen days' journey to the South-eastward from Derow. The matrix in which the gold in Egypt was found is quartz, and the excavations to procure the gold are exceedingly deep. The principal excavation is 180 feet deep. The quartz thus obtained was broken by the workmen into small fragments, of the size of a bean, and these were passed through hand mills made of granitic stone, and when reduced to powder the quartz was washed on inclined tables, and the gold was thus separated from the stone. Diodorus says, that the principal persons engaged in mining operations were captives, taken in war, and persons who were compelled to labor in the mines, for offences against the government. They were bound in fetters, and compelled to labor night and day. "No attention," he says, "is paid to these persons; they have not even a piece of rag to cover themselves; and so wretched is their condition, that every one who witnesses it, deplores the excessive misery which they endure. No rest, no intermission from toil, are given either to the sick or the maimed; neither the weakness of age, nor women's infirmities, are regarded; all are driven to the work with the lash, until, at last, overcome with the intolerable weight of their afflictions, they die in the midst of their toil." Diodorus adds, "Nature indeed, I think, teaches that as gold is obtained with immense labor, so it is kept with difficulty, creating great anxiety, and attended in its use both with pleasure and with grief." It was perhaps, in view of such laborious and difficult operations in obtaining the precious metals, and of the skill which man had evinced in extracting them from the earth, that Job alluded here to the process as a striking proof of human wisdom. On the early use of the metals among the ancient Egyptians, the reader may consult with advantage, Wilkinsoh's "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," vol. iii. pp. 215ff.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

Surely there is a vein for silver - Margin, "mine" Coverdale renders this, "There are places where silver is molten." Prof. Lee renders it, "There is an outlet for the silver," and supposes it means the coming out or separation of the silver from the earthy particles by which it is surrounded in the ore, not the coming out from the mine. The word rendered "vein" (מוצא môtsâ') means properly a going forth, as the rising of the sun, Psa 19:6; the promulgation of an edict Dan 9:25; then a place of going forth - as a gate, door; Eze 42:11; Eze 43:11, and thence a mine, a vein, or a place of the going forth of metals; that is, a place where they are procured. So the Septuagint here, Ἔστι γὰρ άργυρίῳ τό πος ὅθεν γίνεται Esti gar arguriō topos hothen ginetai - "there is a place for silver whence it is obtained." The idea here is that man had evinced his wisdom in finding out the mines of silver and working them. It was one of the instances of his skill that he had been able to penetrate into the earth, and bring out the ore of the precious metals, and convert it to valuable purposes.

And a place for gold - A workshop, or laboratory, for working the precious metals. Job says, that even in his time such a laboratory was a proof of the wisdom of man. So now, one of the most striking proofs of skill is to be found in the places where the precious metals are purified, and worked into the various forms in which they are adapted to ornament and use.

Where they fine it - - יזקו yāzoqû. The word used here (זקק zâqaq) means properly to bind fast, to fetter; and then to compress, to squeeze through a strainer; and hence, to strain, filter; and thence to purify - as wine that is thus filtered, or gold that is purified Mal 3:3. It may refer here to any process of purifying or refining. It is commonly done by the application of heat. One of the instructive uses of the book of Job is the light which it throws incidentally on the state of the ancient arts and sciences, and the condition of society in reference to the comforts of life at the early period of the world when the author lived. In this passage it is clear:

(1) that the metals were then in general use, and

(2) that they were so worked as to furnish, in the view of Job a striking illustration of human wisdom and skill.

Society was so far advanced as to make use not only of gold and silver, but also of copper and brass. The use of gold and silver commonly precedes the discovery of iron, and consequently the mention of iron in any ancient book indicates a considerably advanced state of society. It is of course, not known to what extent the art of working metals was carried in the time of Job, as all that would be indicated here would be that the method of obtaining the pure metal from the ore was understood. It may be interesting, however, to observe, that the art was early known to the Egyptians, and was carried by them to a considerable degree of perfection. Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in vestures of fine linen, and put a chain of gold about his neck; Gen 41:42, and great quantities of gold and silver ornaments were borrowed by the Israelites of the Egyptians, when they were about to go to the promised land. Gold and silver are mentioned as known in the earliest ages; compare Gen 2:11-12; Gen 41:42; Exo 20:23; Gen 23:15-16. Iron is also mentioned as having been early known; Gen 4:22. Tubal Cain was instructor in iron and brass. Gold and silver mines were early worked in Egypt, and if Moses was the compiler of the book of Job, it is possible that some of the descriptions here may have been derived from that country, and at all events the mode of working these precious metals was probably the same in Arabia and Egypt. From the mention of ear rings, bracelets, and jewels of silver and gold, in the days of Abraham, it is evident that the art of metallurgy was known at a very remote period. Workmen are noticed by Homer as excelling in the manufacture of arms, rich vases, and other objects inlaid or ornamented with vessels:

Πηλείδης δ ̓ ἆιψ ἄλλα τίθει ταχυτῆτος ἄεθλα,

Αργύρεον κρατῆρα τετυγμειον.

Pēleidēs d' aips alla tithei tachutēnos aethla,

Argirepm kratēra tetugmeion.

Iliad xxiii. 741.

His account of the shield of Achilles (Iliad xviii. 474) proves that the art of working in the precious metals was well known in his time; and the skill required to delineate the various objects which he describes was such as no ordinary artisan, even at this time, could be supposed to possess. In Egypt, ornaments of gold and silver, consisting of rings, bracelets, necklaces, and trinkets, have been found in considerable abundance of the times of Osirtasen I, and Thothmes III, the contemporaries of Joseph and of Moses. Diodorus (i. 49) mentions silver mine of Egypt which produced 3,200 myriads of minae. The gold mines of Egypt remained long unknown, and their position has been ascertained only a few years since by M. Linant and M. Bonomi. They lie in the Bisharee desert, about seventeen days' journey to the South-eastward from Derow. The matrix in which the gold in Egypt was found is quartz, and the excavations to procure the gold are exceedingly deep.

The principal excavation is 180 feet deep. The quartz thus obtained was broken by the workmen into small fragments, of the size of a bean, and these were passed through hand mills made of granitic stone, and when reduced to powder the quartz was washed on inclined tables, and the gold was thus separated from the stone. Diodorus says, that the principal persons engaged in mining operations were captives, taken in war, and persons who were compelled to labor in the mines, for offences against the government. They were bound in fetters, and compelled to labor night and day. "No attention," he says, "is paid to these persons; they have not even a piece of rag to cover themselves; and so wretched is their condition, that every one who witnesses it, deplores the excessive misery which they endure. No rest, no intermission from toil, are given either to the sick or the maimed; neither the weakness of age, nor women's infirmities, are regarded; all are driven to the work with the lash, until, at last, overcome with the intolerable weight of their afflictions, they die in the midst of their toil."

Diodorus adds, "Nature indeed, I think, teaches that as gold is obtained with immense labor, so it is kept with difficulty, creating great anxiety, and attended in its use both with pleasure and with grief." It was perhaps, in view of such laborious and difficult operations in obtaining the precious metals, and of the skill which man had evinced in extracting them from the earth, that Job alluded here to the process as a striking proof of human wisdom. On the early use of the metals among the ancient Egyptians, the reader may consult with advantage, Wilkinsoh's "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," vol. iii. pp. 215ff.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
1 For there is a mine for the silver, And a place for gold which they fine. 2 Iron is taken out of the dust, And he poureth forth stone as copper. 3 He hath made an end of darkness, And he searcheth all extremities For the stone of darkness and of the shadow of death. 4 He breaketh away a shaft from those who tarry above: There, forgotten by every foot, They hang and swing far from men. (Note: Among the expositors of this and the two following strophes, are two acquainted with mining: The director of mines, von Veltheim, whose observations J. D. Michaelis has contributed in the Orient. u. exeg. Bibliothek, xxiii. 7-17; and the inspector of mines, Rudolf Nasse, in Studien und Krit. 1863, 105-111. Umbreit's Commentary contains some observations by von Leonhard; he understands Job 28:4 as referring to the descent upon a cross bar attached to a rope, Job 28:5 of the lighting up by burning poles, Job 28:6 of the lapis lazuli, and Job 28:10 of the earliest mode of "letting off the water.") According to the most natural connection demonstrated by us, Job desires to show that the final lot of the rich man is well merited, because the treasures which he made the object of his avarice and pride, though ever so costly, are still earthy in their nature and origin. Therefore he begins with the most precious metals, with silver, which has the precedence in reference to Job 27:16, and with gold. מוצא without any secondary notion of fulness (Schultens) signifies the issuing place, i.e., the place fro which anything naturally comes forth (Job 38:27), or whence it is obtained (Kg1 10:28); here in the latter sense of the place where a mineral is found, or the mine, as the parall. מקום, the place where the gold comes forth, therefore a gold mine. According to the accentuation (Rebia mugrasch, Mercha, Silluk), it is not to be translated: and a place for the gold where they refine it; but: a place for the gold which they refine. זקק, to strain, filter, is the technical expression for purifying the precious metals from the rock that is mingled with them (Mal 3:3) by washing. The pure gold or silver thus obtained is called מזקּק (Psa 12:7; Ch1 28:18; Ch1 29:4). Diodorus, in his description of mining in Upper Egypt (Job 3:11), after having described the operation of crushing the stone to small fragments, (Note: Vid., the whole account skilfully translated in Klemm's Allgem. Cultur-Geschichte, v. 503f.) proceeds: "Then artificers take the crushed stone and lay it on a broad table, which is slightly inclined, and pour water over it; this washes away the earthy parts, and the gold remains on the slab. This operation is repeated several times, the mass being at first gently rubbed with the hand; then they press it lightly with thin sponges, and thus draw off all that is earthy and light, so that the gold dust is left quite clean. And, finally, other artificers take it up in a mass, shake it in an earthen crucible, and add a proportionate quantity of lead, grains of salt, and a little tin and barley bran; they then place a close-fitting cover over the crucible, and cement it with clay, and leave it five days and nights to seethe constantly in the furnace. After this they allow it to cool, and then finding nothing of the flux in the crucible, they take the pure gold out with only slight diminution." The expression for the first of these operations, the separation of the gold from the quartz by washing, or indeed sifting (straining, Seihen), is זקק; and for the other, the separation by exposure to heat, or smelting, is צרף. Job 28:2 From the mention of silver and gold, the description passes on to iron and ore (copper, cuprum = aes Cyprium). Iron is called בּרזל, not with the noun-ending el like כּרמל (thus Ges., Olsh., and others), but probably expanded from בּזּל (Frst), like שׁרבּיט from שׁבּיט = שׁבט, סמפּיר from ספּיר, βάλσαμον from בּשׂם, since, as Pliny testifies, the name of basalt (iron-marble) and iron are related, (Note: Hist. nat. xxxvi. 7, 11: Invenit eadem Aegyptus in Aethiopia quem vocant basalten (basaniten) ferrei coloris atque duritiae, unde et nomen ei dedit (vid., von Raumer, Palstina, S. 96, 4th edition). Neither Seetzen nor Wetzstein has found proper iron-ore in Basan. Basalt is all the more prevalent there, from which Basan may have its name. For there is no special Semitic word for basalt; Botchor calls in the aid of Arab. nw‛ ruchâm 'swd, "a kind of black marble;" but, as Wetzstein informs me, this is only a translation of the phrase of a French dictionary which he had, for the general name of basalt, at least in Syria, is hagar aswad (black stone). Iron is called hadı̂d in Arabic (literally a pointed instrument, with the not infrequent transference of the name of the tool to the material from which it is made). ברזל (פרזל) is known in Arabic only in the form firzil, as the name for iron chains and great smith's shears for cutting iron; but it is remarkable that in Berber, which is related to Egyptian, iron is called even in the present day wazzâl; vid., Lex. geographicum ed. Juynboll, tom. iv. (adnot.) p. 64, l. 16, and Marcel, Vocabulaire Franaisarabe de dialectes vulgaires africains, p. 249: "Fer Arab. ḥdı̂d, hadyd (en berbere Arab. wzzâl, ouezzâl; Arab. 'wzzâl, ôouzzâl)." The Coptic name of iron is benipi (dialect. penipe), according to Prof. Lauth perhaps, as also barôt, ore, connected with ba, the hieroglyph name of a very hard mineral; the black basalt of an obelisk in the British Museum is called bechenen in the inscription. If it really be so, that iron and basalt are homonymous in Semitic, the reason could only be sought for in the dark iron-black colour of basalt, in its hardness, and perhaps also its weight (which, however, is only about half the specific gravity of pure iron), not in the magnetic iron, which has only in more modern times been discovered to be a substantial component part of basalt, the grains of which cannot be seen by the naked eye, and are only detected with the magnetic needle, or by chemical analysis.) and copper is called נחשׁת, for which the book of Job (Job 20:24; Job 28:2; Job 40:18; Job 41:19; comp. even Lev 26:19) always has נחוּשׁה (aereum = aes, Arab. nuhâs). Of the iron it is said that it is procured from the עפר, by which the bowels of the earth are meant here, as the surface of the earth in Job 41:25; and of copper it is said that they pour out the stone into copper (vid., Ges. 139, 2), i.e., smelt copper from it: יצוּק as Job 29:6, fundit, here with a subj. of the most general kind: one pours; on the contrary, Job 41:15. partic. of יצק. Job 28:3 distinctly shows that it is the bowels of the earth from which these metals are obtained: he (man) has made an end of the darkness, since he turns out and lights up the lightless interior of the earth; and לכל־תּכלית, to every extremity, i.e., to the remotest depths, he searches out the stone of deep darkness and of the shadow of death, i.e., hidden in the deepest darkness, far beneath the surface of the earth (vid., on Job 10:22; and comp. Pliny, h. n. xxxiii. proaem. of mining: imus in viscera ejus [terrae] et in sede Manium opes quaerimus). Most expositors (Hirz., Ew., Hahn, Schlottm., and others) take לכל־תלית adverbially, "to the utmost" or "most closely," but vid., on Job 26:10; לתכלית might be used thus adverbially, but לכל־תכלית is to be explained according to לכל־רוח, Eze 5:10 (to all the winds). Job 28:4 Job now describes the operation of mining more minutely; and it is worthy of observation that the last-mentioned metal, with which the description is closely connected, is copper. נחל, which signifies elsewhere a valley, the bed of a river, and the river itself, like the Arab. wâdin (not from נחל = נהל, to flow on, as Ges. Thes. and Frst, but from נחל, root חל to hollow, whence נחילה = חליל, a flute, as being a hollowed musical instrument), signifies here the excavation made in the earth, and in fact, as what follows shows, in a perpendicular direction, therefore the shaft. Nasse contends for the signification "valley," by which one might very well conceive of "the working of a surface vein:" "By this mode of working, a small shaft is made in the vein (consequently in a perpendicular direction), and the ore is worked from both sides at once. At a short distance from the first shaft a second is formed, and worked in the same way. Since thus the work progresses lengthwise, a cutting becomes formed in the mountain which may well be compared to a deep valley, if, as is generally the case where the stone is firm and the ways are almost perpendicular, the space that is hewn out remains open (that is, not broken in or filled in)." But if נחל everywhere else denotes a valley with its watercourse, it has not necessarily a like signification in mining technology. It signifies, perhaps not without reference to its usual signification, the shafts open above and surrounded by walls of rock (in distinction from the more or less horizontal galleries or pit-ways, as they were cut through the excavated rocks in the gold mines of Upper Egypt, often so crooked that, as Diodorus relates, the miners, provided with lights on their forehead, were always obliged to vary the posture of the body (according to the windings of the galleries); and מעם־גּר, away from him who remains above, shows that one is to imagine these shafts as being of considerable depth,; but what follows even more clearly indicates this: there forgotten (הנּשׁכּחים with the demonstrative art. as Job 26:5; Psa 18:31; Psa 19:11, Ges. 109 ad init.) of (every) foot (that walks above), they hang (comp. Rabb. מדלדּל, pendulus) (Note: Vid., Luzzatto on Isa 18:5, where זלזלים, of the trembling and quivering twigs, is correctly traced to זלל = דלל = זלל; on the other hand, Isa 14:19, אבני־בור is wrongly translated fundo della fossa, by comparison with Job 28:3. אבן does not signify a shaft, still less the lowest shaft, but stone (rock).) far from men, hang and swing or are suspended: comp. Pliny, h. n. xxxiii. 4, 21, according to Sillig's text: is qui caedit funibus pendet, ut procul intuenti species no ferarum quidem sed alitum fiat. Pendentes majori ex parte librant et linias itineri praeducunt. דּלל has here the primary signification proper also to the Arab. dll, deorsum pendeere; and נוּע is related to נוּד, as nuere, νεύειν, to nutare. The מני of מנּי־רגל, taken strictly, does not correspond to the Greek ὑπό, neither does it form an adverbial secondary definition standing by itself: far away from the foot; but it is to be understood as מן is also used elsewhere after נשׁכח, Deu 31:21; Psa 31:13 : forgotten out of the mouth, out of the heart; here: forgotten away from the foot, so that this advances without knowing that there is a man beneath; therefore: totally vanished from the remembrance of those who pass by above. מאנושׁ is not to be connected with נעוּ (Hahn, Schlottm.), but with דּלּוּ, for Munach is the representative of Rebia mugrasch, according to Psalter, ii. 503, 2; and דלו is regularly Milel, whereas Isa 38:14 is Milra without any evident reason. The accentuation here follows no fixed law with equally regulated exceptions (vid., Olsh. 233, c). Moreover, the perception that Job 28:4 speaks of the shaft of the mine, and the descent of the miners by a rope, is due to modern exegesis; even Schultens, who here exclaims: Cimmeriae tenebrae, quas me exsuperaturum vix sperare ausim, perceived the right thing, but only imperfectly as yet. By נחל he understands the course or vein of the metal, where it is embedded; and, since he understands גר after the Arab. ‛garr, foot of the mountain, he translates: rumpit (homo) alveum de pede montis. Rosenm., on the other hand, correctly translates: canalem deorsum actum ex loco quo versatur homo. Schlottm. understands by gr the miner himself dwelling as a stranger in his loneliness; and if we imagine to ourselves the mining districts of the peninsula of Sinai, we might certainly at once conceive the miners' dwellings themselves which are found in the neighbourhood of the shaft in connection with מעם־גר. But in and for itself גר signifies only those settled (above), without the secondary idea of strangers.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

1 For there is a mine for the silver,

And a place for gold which they fine.

2 Iron is taken out of the dust,

And he poureth forth stone as copper.

3 He hath made an end of darkness,

And he searcheth all extremities

For the stone of darkness and of the shadow of death.

4 He breaketh away a shaft from those who tarry above:

There, forgotten by every foot,

They hang and swing far from men.

(Note: Among the expositors of this and the two following strophes, are two acquainted with mining: The director of mines, von Veltheim, whose observations J. D. Michaelis has contributed in the Orient. u. exeg. Bibliothek, xxiii. 7-17; and the inspector of mines, Rudolf Nasse, in Studien und Krit. 1863, 105-111. Umbreit's Commentary contains some observations by von Leonhard; he understands Job 28:4 as referring to the descent upon a cross bar attached to a rope, Job 28:5 of the lighting up by burning poles, Job 28:6 of the lapis lazuli, and Job 28:10 of the earliest mode of "letting off the water.")

According to the most natural connection demonstrated by us, Job desires to show that the final lot of the rich man is well merited, because the treasures which he made the object of his avarice and pride, though ever so costly, are still earthy in their nature and origin. Therefore he begins with the most precious metals, with silver, which has the precedence in reference to Job 27:16, and with gold. מוצא without any secondary notion of fulness (Schultens) signifies the issuing place, i.e., the place fro which anything naturally comes forth (Job 38:27), or whence it is obtained (Kg1 10:28); here in the latter sense of the place where a mineral is found, or the mine, as the parall. מקום, the place where the gold comes forth, therefore a gold mine. According to the accentuation (Rebia mugrasch, Mercha, Silluk), it is not to be translated: and a place for the gold where they refine it; but: a place for the gold which they refine. זקק, to strain, filter, is the technical expression for purifying the precious metals from the rock that is mingled with them (Mal 3:3) by washing. The pure gold or silver thus obtained is called מזקּק (Psa 12:7; Ch1 28:18; Ch1 29:4). Diodorus, in his description of mining in Upper Egypt (Job 3:11), after having described the operation of crushing the stone to small fragments,

(Note: Vid., the whole account skilfully translated in Klemm's Allgem. Cultur-Geschichte, v. 503f.)

proceeds: "Then artificers take the crushed stone and lay it on a broad table, which is slightly inclined, and pour water over it; this washes away the earthy parts, and the gold remains on the slab. This operation is repeated several times, the mass being at first gently rubbed with the hand; then they press it lightly with thin sponges, and thus draw off all that is earthy and light, so that the gold dust is left quite clean. And, finally, other artificers take it up in a mass, shake it in an earthen crucible, and add a proportionate quantity of lead, grains of salt, and a little tin and barley bran; they then place a close-fitting cover over the crucible, and cement it with clay, and leave it five days and nights to seethe constantly in the furnace. After this they allow it to cool, and then finding nothing of the flux in the crucible, they take the pure gold out with only slight diminution." The expression for the first of these operations, the separation of the gold from the quartz by washing, or indeed sifting (straining, Seihen), is זקק; and for the other, the separation by exposure to heat, or smelting, is צרף.

Job 28:2

From the mention of silver and gold, the description passes on to iron and ore (copper, cuprum = aes Cyprium). Iron is called בּרזל, not with the noun-ending el like כּרמל (thus Ges., Olsh., and others), but probably expanded from בּזּל (Frst), like שׁרבּיט from שׁבּיט = שׁבט, סמפּיר from ספּיר, βάλσαμον from בּשׂם, since, as Pliny testifies, the name of basalt (iron-marble) and iron are related,

(Note: Hist. nat. xxxvi. 7, 11: Invenit eadem Aegyptus in Aethiopia quem vocant basalten (basaniten) ferrei coloris atque duritiae, unde et nomen ei dedit (vid., von Raumer, Palstina, S. 96, 4th edition). Neither Seetzen nor Wetzstein has found proper iron-ore in Basan. Basalt is all the more prevalent there, from which Basan may have its name. For there is no special Semitic word for basalt; Botchor calls in the aid of Arab. nw‛ ruchâm 'swd, "a kind of black marble;" but, as Wetzstein informs me, this is only a translation of the phrase of a French dictionary which he had, for the general name of basalt, at least in Syria, is hagar aswad (black stone). Iron is called hadı̂d in Arabic (literally a pointed instrument, with the not infrequent transference of the name of the tool to the material from which it is made). ברזל (פרזל) is known in Arabic only in the form firzil, as the name for iron chains and great smith's shears for cutting iron; but it is remarkable that in Berber, which is related to Egyptian, iron is called even in the present day wazzâl; vid., Lex. geographicum ed. Juynboll, tom. iv. (adnot.) p. 64, l. 16, and Marcel, Vocabulaire Franaisarabe de dialectes vulgaires africains, p. 249: "Fer Arab. ḥdı̂d, hadyd (en berbere Arab. wzzâl, ouezzâl; Arab. 'wzzâl, ôouzzâl)." The Coptic name of iron is benipi (dialect. penipe), according to Prof. Lauth perhaps, as also barôt, ore, connected with ba, the hieroglyph name of a very hard mineral; the black basalt of an obelisk in the British Museum is called bechenen in the inscription. If it really be so, that iron and basalt are homonymous in Semitic, the reason could only be sought for in the dark iron-black colour of basalt, in its hardness, and perhaps also its weight (which, however, is only about half the specific gravity of pure iron), not in the magnetic iron, which has only in more modern times been discovered to be a substantial component part of basalt, the grains of which cannot be seen by the naked eye, and are only detected with the magnetic needle, or by chemical analysis.)

and copper is called נחשׁת, for which the book of Job (Job 20:24; Job 28:2; Job 40:18; Job 41:19; comp. even Lev 26:19) always has נחוּשׁה (aereum = aes, Arab. nuhâs). Of the iron it is said that it is procured from the עפר, by which the bowels of the earth are meant here, as the surface of the earth in Job 41:25; and of copper it is said that they pour out the stone into copper (vid., Ges. 139, 2), i.e., smelt copper from it: יצוּק as Job 29:6, fundit, here with a subj. of the most general kind: one pours; on the contrary, Job 41:15. partic. of יצק. Job 28:3 distinctly shows that it is the bowels of the earth from which these metals are obtained: he (man) has made an end of the darkness, since he turns out and lights up the lightless interior of the earth; and לכל־תּכלית, to every extremity, i.e., to the remotest depths, he searches out the stone of deep darkness and of the shadow of death, i.e., hidden in the deepest darkness, far beneath the surface of the earth (vid., on Job 10:22; and comp. Pliny, h. n. xxxiii. proaem. of mining: imus in viscera ejus [terrae] et in sede Manium opes quaerimus). Most expositors (Hirz., Ew., Hahn, Schlottm., and others) take לכל־תלית adverbially, "to the utmost" or "most closely," but vid., on Job 26:10; לתכלית might be used thus adverbially, but לכל־תכלית is to be explained according to לכל־רוח, Eze 5:10 (to all the winds).

Job 28:4

Job now describes the operation of mining more minutely; and it is worthy of observation that the last-mentioned metal, with which the description is closely connected, is copper. נחל, which signifies elsewhere a valley, the bed of a river, and the river itself, like the Arab. wâdin (not from נחל = נהל, to flow on, as Ges. Thes. and Frst, but from נחל, root חל to hollow, whence נחילה = חליל, a flute, as being a hollowed musical instrument), signifies here the excavation made in the earth, and in fact, as what follows shows, in a perpendicular direction, therefore the shaft. Nasse contends for the signification "valley," by which one might very well conceive of "the working of a surface vein:" "By this mode of working, a small shaft is made in the vein (consequently in a perpendicular direction), and the ore is worked from both sides at once. At a short distance from the first shaft a second is formed, and worked in the same way. Since thus the work progresses lengthwise, a cutting becomes formed in the mountain which may well be compared to a deep valley, if, as is generally the case where the stone is firm and the ways are almost perpendicular, the space that is hewn out remains open (that is, not broken in or filled in)." But if נחל everywhere else denotes a valley with its watercourse, it has not necessarily a like signification in mining technology. It signifies, perhaps not without reference to its usual signification, the shafts open above and surrounded by walls of rock (in distinction from the more or less horizontal galleries or pit-ways, as they were cut through the excavated rocks in the gold mines of Upper Egypt, often so crooked that, as Diodorus relates, the miners, provided with lights on their forehead, were always obliged to vary the posture of the body (according to the windings of the galleries); and מעם־גּר, away from him who remains above, shows that one is to imagine these shafts as being of considerable depth,; but what follows even more clearly indicates this: there forgotten (הנּשׁכּחים with the demonstrative art. as Job 26:5; Psa 18:31; Psa 19:11, Ges. 109 ad init.) of (every) foot (that walks above), they hang (comp. Rabb. מדלדּל, pendulus)

(Note: Vid., Luzzatto on Isa 18:5, where זלזלים, of the trembling and quivering twigs, is correctly traced to זלל = דלל = זלל; on the other hand, Isa 14:19, אבני־בור is wrongly translated fundo della fossa, by comparison with Job 28:3. אבן does not signify a shaft, still less the lowest shaft, but stone (rock).)

far from men, hang and swing or are suspended: comp. Pliny, h. n. xxxiii. 4, 21, according to Sillig's text: is qui caedit funibus pendet, ut procul intuenti species no ferarum quidem sed alitum fiat. Pendentes majori ex parte librant et linias itineri praeducunt. דּלל has here the primary signification proper also to the Arab. dll, deorsum pendeere; and נוּע is related to נוּד, as nuere, νεύειν, to nutare. The מני of מנּי־רגל, taken strictly, does not correspond to the Greek ὑπό, neither does it form an adverbial secondary definition standing by itself: far away from the foot; but it is to be understood as מן is also used elsewhere after נשׁכח, Deu 31:21; Psa 31:13 : forgotten out of the mouth, out of the heart; here: forgotten away from the foot, so that this advances without knowing that there is a man beneath; therefore: totally vanished from the remembrance of those who pass by above. מאנושׁ is not to be connected with נעוּ (Hahn, Schlottm.), but with דּלּוּ, for Munach is the representative of Rebia mugrasch, according to Psalter, ii. 503, 2; and דלו is regularly Milel, whereas Isa 38:14 is Milra without any evident reason. The accentuation here follows no fixed law with equally regulated exceptions (vid., Olsh. 233, c).

Moreover, the perception that Job 28:4 speaks of the shaft of the mine, and the descent of the miners by a rope, is due to modern exegesis; even Schultens, who here exclaims: Cimmeriae tenebrae, quas me exsuperaturum vix sperare ausim, perceived the right thing, but only imperfectly as yet. By נחל he understands the course or vein of the metal, where it is embedded; and, since he understands גר after the Arab. ‛garr, foot of the mountain, he translates: rumpit (homo) alveum de pede montis. Rosenm., on the other hand, correctly translates: canalem deorsum actum ex loco quo versatur homo. Schlottm. understands by gr the miner himself dwelling as a stranger in his loneliness; and if we imagine to ourselves the mining districts of the peninsula of Sinai, we might certainly at once conceive the miners' dwellings themselves which are found in the neighbourhood of the shaft in connection with מעם־גר. But in and for itself גר signifies only those settled (above), without the secondary idea of strangers.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Surely - Job having in the last chapter discoursed of God's various providences toward wicked men, and shewed that God doth sometimes, for a season, give them prosperity, but afterwards calls them to a sad account, and having shewed that God doth sometimes prosper the wicked all their days, so they live and die without any visible token of God's displeasure, when on the contrary, good men are exercised with many calamities; and perceiving that his friends were, scandalized at these methods of Divine providence, and denied the thing, because they could not understand the reason of such dispensations: in this chapter he declares that this is one of the depths of Divine wisdom, not discoverable by any mortal man, and that although men had some degree of wisdom whereby they could search out many hidden things, as the veins of silver, and gold, yet this was a wisdom of an higher nature, and out of man's reach. The caverns of the earth he may discover, but not the counsels of heaven.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Surely there is a vein for the silver - This chapter is the oldest and finest piece of natural history in the world, and gives us very important information on several curious subjects; and could we ascertain the precise meaning of all the original words, we might, most probably, find out allusions to several useful arts which we are apt to think are of modern, or comparatively modern, invention. The word מוצא motsa, which we here translate vein, signifies literally, a going out; i.e., a mine, or place dug in the earth, whence the silver ore is extracted. And this ore lies generally in veins or loads, running in certain directions. A place for gold where they fine it - This should rather be translated, A place for gold which they refine. Gold ore has also its peculiar mine, and requires to be refined from earthy impurities.

Top

³ And he shall sit [03427] as a refiner [06884] and purifier [02891] of silver [03701]: and he shall purify [02891] the sons [01121] of Levi [03878], and purge [02212] them as gold [02091] and silver [03701], that they may offer [05066] unto the LORD [03068] an offering [04503] in righteousness [06666].

²² And Zillah [06741], she also bare [03205] Tubalcain [08423], an instructer [03913] of every artificer [02794] in brass [05178] and iron [01270]: and the sister [0269] of Tubalcain [08423] was Naamah [05279].

¹⁵ My lord [0113], hearken [08085] unto me: the land [0776] is worth four [0702] hundred [03967] shekels [08255] of silver [03701]; what is that betwixt [0996] me and thee? bury [06912] therefore thy dead [04191].
¹⁶ And Abraham [085] hearkened [08085] unto Ephron [06085]; and Abraham [085] weighed [08254] to Ephron [06085] the silver [03701], which he had named [01696] in the audience [0241] of the sons [01121] of Heth [02845], four [0702] hundred [03967] shekels [08255] of silver [03701], current [05674] money with the merchant [05503].

²³ Ye shall not make [06213] with me gods [0430] of silver [03701], neither shall ye make [06213] unto you gods [0430] of gold [02091].

⁴² And Pharaoh [06547] took off [05493] his ring [02885] from his hand [03027], and put [05414] it upon Joseph's [03130] hand [03027], and arrayed [03847] him in vestures [0899] of fine linen [08336], and put [07760] a gold [02091] chain [07242] about his neck [06677];

¹¹ The name [08034] of the first [0259] is Pison [06376]: that [01931] is it which compasseth [05437] the whole land [0776] of Havilah [02341], where [0834] there is gold [02091];
¹² And the gold [02091] of that [01931] land [0776] is good [02896]: there is bdellium [0916] and the onyx [07718] stone [068].

¹¹ And if they be ashamed [03637] of all that they have done [06213], shew [03045] them the form [06699] of the house [01004], and the fashion [08498] thereof, and the goings out [04161] thereof, and the comings [04126] in thereof, and all the forms [06699] thereof, and all the ordinances [02708] thereof, and all the forms [06699] thereof, and all the laws [08451] thereof: and write [03789] it in their sight [05869], that they may keep [08104] the whole form [06699] thereof, and all the ordinances [02708] thereof, and do [06213] them.

¹¹ And the way [01870] before [06440] them was like the appearance [04758] of the chambers [03957] which were toward [01870] the north [06828], as long as [0753] they, and as broad as [03651] [07341] they: and all their goings out [04161] were both according to their fashions [04941], and according to their doors [06607].

²⁵ Know [03045] therefore and understand [07919], that from the going forth [04161] of the commandment [01697] to restore [07725] and to build [01129] Jerusalem [03389] unto the Messiah [04899] the Prince [05057] shall be seven [07651] weeks [07620], and threescore [08346] and two [08147] weeks [07620]: the street [07339] shall be built [01129] again [07725], and the wall [02742], even in troublous [06695] times [06256].

⁶ His going forth [04161] is from the end [07097] of the heaven [08064], and his circuit [08622] unto the ends [07098] of it: and there is nothing hid [05641] from the heat [02535] thereof.

⁴ The flood [05158] breaketh out [06555] from the inhabitant [01481]; even the waters forgotten [07911] of the foot [07272]: they are dried up [01809], they are gone away [05128] from men [0582].

¹⁴ Like a crane [05483] or a swallow [05693], so did I chatter [06850]: I did mourn [01897] as a dove [03123]: mine eyes [05869] fail [01809] with looking upward [04791]: O LORD [03068], I am oppressed [06234]; undertake [06148] for me.

¹³ For I have heard [08085] the slander [01681] of many [07227]: fear [04032] was on every side [05439]: while they took counsel [03245] together [03162] against me, they devised [02161] to take away [03947] my life [05315].

²¹ And it shall come to pass, when many [07227] evils [07451] and troubles [06869] are befallen [04672] them, that this song [07892] shall testify [06030] against [06440] them as a witness [05707]; for it shall not be forgotten [07911] out of the mouths [06310] of their seed [02233]: for I know [03045] their imagination [03336] which they go about [06213], even now [03117], before I have brought [0935] them into the land [0776] which I sware [07650].

³ He setteth [07760] an end [07093] to darkness [02822], and searcheth out [02713] all perfection [08503]: the stones [068] of darkness [0652], and the shadow of death [06757].

¹⁹ But thou art cast out [07993] of thy grave [06913] like an abominable [08581] branch [05342], and as the raiment [03830] of those that are slain [02026], thrust through [02944] with a sword [02719], that go down [03381] to the stones [068] of the pit [0953]; as a carcase [06297] trodden under feet [0947].

⁵ For afore [06440] the harvest [07105], when the bud [06525] is perfect [08552], and the sour grape [01155] is ripening [01580] in the flower [05328], he shall both cut off [03772] the sprigs [02150] with pruning hooks [04211], and take away [05493] and cut down [08456] the branches [05189].

¹¹ Moreover by them is thy servant [05650] warned [02094]: and in keeping [08104] of them there is great [07227] reward [06118].

³¹ For who is God [0433] save [01107] the LORD [03068]? or who is a rock [06697] save [02108] our God [0430]?

⁵ Dead [07496] things are formed [02342] from under the waters [04325], and the inhabitants [07931] thereof.

⁴ The flood [05158] breaketh out [06555] from the inhabitant [01481]; even the waters forgotten [07911] of the foot [07272]: they are dried up [01809], they are gone away [05128] from men [0582].

¹⁰ Therefore the fathers [01] shall eat [0398] the sons [01121] in the midst [08432] of thee, and the sons [01121] shall eat [0398] their fathers [01]; and I will execute [06213] judgments [08201] in thee, and the whole remnant [07611] of thee will I scatter [02219] into all the winds [07307].

¹⁰ He hath compassed [02328] the waters [06440] [04325] with bounds [02706], until the day [0216] and night [02822] come to an end [08503].

²² A land [0776] of darkness [05890], as darkness [0652] itself; and of the shadow of death [06757], without any order [05468], and where the light [03313] is as darkness [0652].

³ He setteth [07760] an end [07093] to darkness [02822], and searcheth out [02713] all perfection [08503]: the stones [068] of darkness [0652], and the shadow of death [06757].

¹⁵ His scales [04043] [0650] are his pride [01346], shut up together [05462] as with a close [06862] seal [02368].

⁶ When I washed [07364] my steps [01978] with butter [02529], and the rock [06697] poured me out [06694] rivers [06388] of oil [08081];

²⁵ When he raiseth up [07613] himself, the mighty [0352] are afraid [01481]: by reason of breakings [07667] they purify [02398] themselves.

¹⁹ And I will break [07665] the pride [01347] of your power [05797]; and I will make [05414] your heaven [08064] as iron [01270], and your earth [0776] as brass [05154]:

¹⁹ Out of his mouth [06310] go [01980] burning lamps [03940], and sparks [03590] of fire [0784] leap out [04422].

¹⁸ His bones [06106] are as strong [0650] pieces of brass [05154]; his bones [01634] are like bars [04300] of iron [01270].

² Iron [01270] is taken [03947] out of the earth [06083], and brass [05154] is molten [06694] out of the stone [068].

²⁴ He shall flee [01272] from the iron [01270] weapon [05402], and the bow [07198] of steel [05154] shall strike him through [02498].

² Iron [01270] is taken [03947] out of the earth [06083], and brass [05154] is molten [06694] out of the stone [068].

¹¹ Why died [04191] I not from the womb [07358]? why did I not give up the ghost [01478] when I came out [03318] of the belly [0990]?

⁴ Even three [07969] thousand [0505] talents [03603] of gold [02091], of the gold [02091] of Ophir [0211], and seven [07651] thousand [0505] talents [03603] of refined [02212] silver [03701], to overlay [02902] the walls [07023] of the houses [01004] withal:

¹⁸ And for the altar [04196] of incense [07004] refined [02212] gold [02091] by weight [04948]; and gold [02091] for the pattern [08403] of the chariot [04818] of the cherubims [03742], that spread out [06566] their wings, and covered [05526] the ark [0727] of the covenant [01285] of the LORD [03068].

⁷ Thou shalt keep [08104] them, O LORD [03068], thou shalt preserve [05341] them from this [02098] generation [01755] for ever [05769].

²⁸ And Solomon [08010] had horses [05483] brought [04161] out of Egypt [04714], and linen yarn [04723]: the king's [04428] merchants [05503] received [03947] the linen yarn [04723] at a price [04242].

²⁷ To satisfy [07646] the desolate [07722] and waste [04875] ground; and to cause the bud [04161] of the tender herb [01877] to spring forth [06779]?

¹⁶ Though he heap up [06651] silver [03701] as the dust [06083], and prepare [03559] raiment [04403] as the clay [02563];

¹⁰ He cutteth out [01234] rivers [02975] among the rocks [06697]; and his eye [05869] seeth [07200] every precious thing [03366].

⁶ The stones [068] of it are the place [04725] of sapphires [05601]: and it hath dust [06083] of gold [02091].

⁵ As for the earth [0776], out of it cometh [03318] bread [03899]: and under it is turned up [02015] as it were fire [0784].

⁴ The flood [05158] breaketh out [06555] from the inhabitant [01481]; even the waters forgotten [07911] of the foot [07272]: they are dried up [01809], they are gone away [05128] from men [0582].