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Selected Verse: Job 28:9 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Job 28:9	Strong Concordance	He putteth forth [07971] his hand [03027] upon the rock [02496]; he overturneth [02015] the mountains [02022] by the roots [08328].
	King James	He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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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]
rock--flint. He puts forth his hand to cleave the hardest rock. by the roots--from their foundations, by undermining them.

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

rock--flint. He puts forth his hand to cleave the hardest rock.

by the roots--from their foundations, by undermining them.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
He putteth forth his hand - That is, the miner in securing the precious metals and gems. Upon the rock - Margin, "flint." The word used here (חלמישׁ challâmı̂ysh) occurs also in Psa 104:8. Deu 8:15; Deu 32:13. It means "flint, silex;" and the idea is, that the miner approaches the hardest substances. He penetrates even the flint in searching for precious stones. Dr. Good renders it, "Sparry ore." Michaelis renders the same word in Deu 7:15, porphyry, or red granite. The idea is that nothing, however difficult, not even cutting down the hardest rocks, deters the miner from pursuing his work. He overturneth the mountains by the roots - That is, he digs under them, and they fall. The root of a mountain means its base or foundation. The following passage from Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxiii. c. iv. 21) furnishes an admirable illustration of this passage: Tamen in silice facilior existimatur labor. Est namque terra ex quodam argillae genere glarae mixta, Candidam vocant, prope inexpugnabilis. Cuneis earn ferreis aggrediuntur, et iisdem mallets; nihilque durius putant, nisi quod inter omnia auri lama durissima est. Peracto opere cervices fornicum ab ultimo caedunt, dantque signun ruinrae, eamque solus intelligit in cacumine montis pervigil. Hic voce, ictuque, repente operarios revocari jubet, pariterque ipse devolat. Mons fractus cadit in scse Iongo fragore, qui concipi humana mente non possit, et flatu incredibili. Spectant victores ruinam naturae.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
9 He layeth his hand upon the pebbles; He turneth up the mountains from the root. 10 He cutteth canals through the rocks; And his eye seeth all kinds of precious things. 11 That they may not leak, he dammeth up rivers; And that which is hidden he bringeth to light. 12 But wisdom, whence is it obtained? And where is the place of understanding? Beneath, whither no other being of the upper world penetrates, man puts his hand upon the quartz or rock. חלּמישׁ (perhaps from חלם, to be strong, firm: Arabic, with the reduplication resolved, chalnubûs, like עכּבישׁ, Arab. ‛ancabûth, vid., Jesurun, p. 229) signifies here the quartz, and in general the hard stone; שׁלח יד בּ something like our "to take in hand" of an undertaking requiring strong determination and courage, which here consists in blasting and clearing away the rock that contains no ore, as Pliny, h. n. xxxiii. 4, 21, describes it: Occursant ... silices; hos igne et aceto rumpunt, saepius vero, quoniam id cuniculos vapore et fumo strangulat, caedunt fractariis CL libras ferri habentibus egeruntque umeris noctibus ac diebus per tenebras proxumis tradentes; lucem novissimi cernunt. Further: he (man, devoted to mining) overturns (subvertit according to the primary signification of הפך, Arab. 'fk, 'ft, to turn, twist) mountains from the roots. The accentuation הפך with Rebia mugrasch, משׁרשׁ with Mercha, is false; it is, according to Codd. and old editions, to be accented הפך with Tarcha, משׁרשׁ with Munach, and to be translated accordingly: subvertit a radice montes (for Munach is the transformation of a Rebia mugrasch), not a radice montium. Blasting in mining which lays bare the roots (the lowest parts) of the mountains is intended, the conclusion of which - the signal for the flight of the workmen, and the effective crash - is so graphically described by Pliny in the passage cited above: Peracto opere cervices fornicum ab ultumo cadunt; dat signum ruina eamque solus intellegit in cacumine ejus montis vigil. Hic voce, nutu evocari jubet operas pariterque ipse devolat. Mons fractus cadit ab sese longe fragore qui concipi humana mente non possit eque efflatu incredibili spectant victores ruinam naturae. The meaning of Job 28:10 depends upon the signification of the יארים. It is certainly the most natural that it should signify canals. The word is Egyptian; aur in the language of the hieroglyphs signifies a river, and especially the Nile; wherefore at the close of the Laterculus of Eratosthenes the name of the king, Φρουορῶ (Φουορῶ), is explained by ἤτοι Νεῖλος. If water-canals are intended, they may be either such as go in or come away. In the first case it may mean water let in like a cataract over the ruins of the blasted auriferous rock, the corrugi of Pliny: Alius par labor ac vel majoris impendi: flumina ad lavandam hanc ruinam jugis montium obiter duxere a centesimo plerumque lapide; corrugos vocant, a corrivatione credo; mille et hic labores. But בּקּע is not a suitable word for such an extensive and powerful flooding with water for the purpose of washing the gold. It suits far better to understand the expression of galleries or ways cut horizontally in the rock to carry the water away. Thus von Veltheim explains it: "The miner makes ways through the hard rock into his section in which the perpendicular shaft terminates, guides the water which is found in abundance at that depth through it [i.e., the water as the bottom of the pit that hinders the progress of the work], and is able [thus Job 28:10 naturally is connected with what precedes] to judge of the ore and fragments that are at the bottom, and bring them to the light. This mode of mining by constantly forming one gallery under the other [so that a new gallery is made under the pit that is worked out by extending the shaft, and also freeing this from water by making another outlet below the previous one] is the oldest of all, of which anything certain is known in the history of mining, and the most natural in the days when they had no notion of hydraulics." This explanation is far more satisfactory than that of Herm. Sam. Reimarus, of the "Wolfenbtteler Fragmente" (in his edition of the Neue Erkl. des B. Hiob, by John Ad. Hoffmann, 1734, iv. S. 772): "He breaks open watercourses in the rocks. What the miners call coming upon water, is when they break into a fissure from which strong streams of water gush forth. The miner not only knows how to turn such water to good account, but it is also a sign that there are rich veins of ore near at hand, as there is the most water by these courses and fissures. Hence follows: and then his eye sees all kinds of precious things." But there is no ground for saying that water indicates rich veins of ore, and בקע is much more appropriate to describe the designed formation of courses to carry off the water than an accidental discovery of water in course of the work; moreover, יארים is as appropriate to the former as it is inappropriate to the latter explanation, for it signifies elsewhere the arms of the Nile, into which the Nile is artificially divided; and therefore it may easily be transferred to the horizontal canals of the mine cut through the hard rock (or through the upper earth). Nevertheless, although the water plays an important part in mining operations, by giving rise to the greatest difficulties, as it frequently happens that a pit is deluged with water, and must be abandoned because no one can get down to it: it is improbable that Job 28:10 as well as Job 28:11 refers to this; we therefore prefer to understand יארים as meaning the (horizontal) courses (galleries or drifts) in which the ore is dug, - a rendering which is all the more possible, since, on the one hand, in Coptic jaro (Sahidic jero) signifies the Nile of Egypt (phiaro ente chêmi); on the other, ior (eioor) signifies a ditch, διώρυξ (comp. Isa 33:21, יארים, lxx διώρυχες), vid., Ges. Thes. Thus also Job 28:10 is consistently connected with what precedes, since by cutting these cuniculi the courses of the ore (veins), and any precious stones that may also be embedded there, are laid bare. Job 28:11 Contrary to the correct indication of the accentuation, Hahn translates: he stops up the droppings of the watercourses; מבּכי has Dech, and is therefore not to be connected with what follows as a genitive. But Reimarus' translation: from the drops he connects the streams, is inadmissible. "The trickling water," he observes, "is carefully caught in channels by the miners for use, and is thus brought together from several parts of the reservoir and the water-wheel. What Pliny calls corrugus, corrivatio,." On the contrary, Schlottm. remarks that חבשׁ cannot signify such a connection, i.e., gathering together of watercourses; it occurs elsewhere only of hunting, i.e., binding up wounds. Nevertheless, although חבשׁ cannot directly signify "to collect," the signification coercere (Job 34:17), which is not far from this idea, - as is evident from the Arab. ḥibs (ḥabs), a dam or sluice for collecting water, and Arab. maḥbas 'l-mâ', a reservoir, cistern, - is easily transferable to water, in the sense of binding = catching up and accumulating. But it is contrary to the form of the expression that מבכי, with this use of חבש, should denote the materia ex qua, and that נהרות should be referred to the miry ditches in which "the crushed ore is washed, for the purpose of separating the good from the worthless." On the contrary, from the form of the expression, it is to be translated: a fletu (not e fletu) flumina obligat, whether it be that a fletu is equivalent to ne flent s. stillent (Simeon Duran: שׁלא יזלו), or obligat equivalent to cohibet (Ralbag: מהזּלה). Thus von Veltheim explains the passage, since he here, as in Job 28:10, understands the channels for carrying off the water. "The miner covers the bottom with mire, and fills up the crevices so exactly i.e., he besmears it, where the channel is broken through, with some water-tight substance, e.g., clay, that it may entirely carry off the water that is caught by it out of the pit in which the shaft terminates, and not let it fall through the fissures crevices to the company of miners below to the vein that lies farther down; then the miner can descend still deeper since the water runs outwards and does not soak through, and bring forth the ore that lies below the channel." This explanation overlooks the fact that יארים is used in Job 28:10, whereas Job 28:11 has נהרות. It is not probable that these are only interchangeable expressions for the channels that carry off the water. יארים is an appropriate expression for it, but not נהרות, which as appropriately describes the conflux of water in the mine itself. The meaning of Job 28:11 is, that he (the miner) binds or stops the watercourses which his working out of the pit has interfered with and injured, so that they may not leak, i.e., that they may not in the least ooze through, whether by building up a wall or by collecting the water that streams forth in reservoirs (Arab. mahbas) or in the channels which carry it outwards, - all these modes of draining off the water may be included in Job 28:11, only the channel itself is not, with von Veltheim, to be understood by נהרות, but the concourse of the water which, in one way or the other, is rendered harmless to the pit-work, so that he (the miner), as Job 28:11 says, can bring to light (אור = לאור) whatever precious things the bowels of the earth conceals (תּעלמהּ, according to Kimchi and others, with euphonic Mappik, as according to the Masora כבכורהּ Isa 28:4, גשׁמהּ Eze 22:24, and also וגלהּ Zac 4:2, only לתפארת הקריאה ולא לכינוי, i.e., they have Mappik only for euphony, not as the expression of the suff.). Job 28:12 With the question in Job 28:12 the description of mining attains the end designed: man can search after and find out silver, gold, and others metals and precious stones, by making the foundations of the earth accessible to him; but wisdom, whence shall be obtain it, and which (ואי־זה, according to another reading ואיזה) is the place of understanding? החכמה has the art. to give prominence to its transcendency over the other attainable things. חכמה is the principal name, and בּינה interchanges with it, as תּבוּנה, Pro 8:1, and other synonyms in which the Chokma literature abounds elsewhere in Prov 1-9. בינה is properly the faculty of seeing through that which is distinguishable, consisting of the possession of the right criteria; חכמה, however, is the perception, in general, of things in their true nature and their final causes.

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

9 He layeth his hand upon the pebbles;

He turneth up the mountains from the root.

10 He cutteth canals through the rocks;

And his eye seeth all kinds of precious things.

11 That they may not leak, he dammeth up rivers;

And that which is hidden he bringeth to light.

12 But wisdom, whence is it obtained?

And where is the place of understanding?

Beneath, whither no other being of the upper world penetrates, man puts his hand upon the quartz or rock. חלּמישׁ (perhaps from חלם, to be strong, firm: Arabic, with the reduplication resolved, chalnubûs, like עכּבישׁ, Arab. ‛ancabûth, vid., Jesurun, p. 229) signifies here the quartz, and in general the hard stone; שׁלח יד בּ something like our "to take in hand" of an undertaking requiring strong determination and courage, which here consists in blasting and clearing away the rock that contains no ore, as Pliny, h. n. xxxiii. 4, 21, describes it: Occursant ... silices; hos igne et aceto rumpunt, saepius vero, quoniam id cuniculos vapore et fumo strangulat, caedunt fractariis CL libras ferri habentibus egeruntque umeris noctibus ac diebus per tenebras proxumis tradentes; lucem novissimi cernunt. Further: he (man, devoted to mining) overturns (subvertit according to the primary signification of הפך, Arab. 'fk, 'ft, to turn, twist) mountains from the roots. The accentuation הפך with Rebia mugrasch, משׁרשׁ with Mercha, is false; it is, according to Codd. and old editions, to be accented הפך with Tarcha, משׁרשׁ with Munach, and to be translated accordingly: subvertit a radice montes (for Munach is the transformation of a Rebia mugrasch), not a radice montium. Blasting in mining which lays bare the roots (the lowest parts) of the mountains is intended, the conclusion of which - the signal for the flight of the workmen, and the effective crash - is so graphically described by Pliny in the passage cited above: Peracto opere cervices fornicum ab ultumo cadunt; dat signum ruina eamque solus intellegit in cacumine ejus montis vigil. Hic voce, nutu evocari jubet operas pariterque ipse devolat. Mons fractus cadit ab sese longe fragore qui concipi humana mente non possit eque efflatu incredibili spectant victores ruinam naturae.

The meaning of Job 28:10 depends upon the signification of the יארים. It is certainly the most natural that it should signify canals. The word is Egyptian; aur in the language of the hieroglyphs signifies a river, and especially the Nile; wherefore at the close of the Laterculus of Eratosthenes the name of the king, Φρουορῶ (Φουορῶ), is explained by ἤτοι Νεῖλος. If water-canals are intended, they may be either such as go in or come away. In the first case it may mean water let in like a cataract over the ruins of the blasted auriferous rock, the corrugi of Pliny: Alius par labor ac vel majoris impendi: flumina ad lavandam hanc ruinam jugis montium obiter duxere a centesimo plerumque lapide; corrugos vocant, a corrivatione credo; mille et hic labores. But בּקּע is not a suitable word for such an extensive and powerful flooding with water for the purpose of washing the gold. It suits far better to understand the expression of galleries or ways cut horizontally in the rock to carry the water away. Thus von Veltheim explains it: "The miner makes ways through the hard rock into his section in which the perpendicular shaft terminates, guides the water which is found in abundance at that depth through it [i.e., the water as the bottom of the pit that hinders the progress of the work], and is able [thus Job 28:10 naturally is connected with what precedes] to judge of the ore and fragments that are at the bottom, and bring them to the light. This mode of mining by constantly forming one gallery under the other [so that a new gallery is made under the pit that is worked out by extending the shaft, and also freeing this from water by making another outlet below the previous one] is the oldest of all, of which anything certain is known in the history of mining, and the most natural in the days when they had no notion of hydraulics." This explanation is far more satisfactory than that of Herm. Sam. Reimarus, of the "Wolfenbtteler Fragmente" (in his edition of the Neue Erkl. des B. Hiob, by John Ad. Hoffmann, 1734, iv. S. 772): "He breaks open watercourses in the rocks. What the miners call coming upon water, is when they break into a fissure from which strong streams of water gush forth. The miner not only knows how to turn such water to good account, but it is also a sign that there are rich veins of ore near at hand, as there is the most water by these courses and fissures. Hence follows: and then his eye sees all kinds of precious things." But there is no ground for saying that water indicates rich veins of ore, and בקע is much more appropriate to describe the designed formation of courses to carry off the water than an accidental discovery of water in course of the work; moreover, יארים is as appropriate to the former as it is inappropriate to the latter explanation, for it signifies elsewhere the arms of the Nile, into which the Nile is artificially divided; and therefore it may easily be transferred to the horizontal canals of the mine cut through the hard rock (or through the upper earth). Nevertheless, although the water plays an important part in mining operations, by giving rise to the greatest difficulties, as it frequently happens that a pit is deluged with water, and must be abandoned because no one can get down to it: it is improbable that Job 28:10 as well as Job 28:11 refers to this; we therefore prefer to understand יארים as meaning the (horizontal) courses (galleries or drifts) in which the ore is dug, - a rendering which is all the more possible, since, on the one hand, in Coptic jaro (Sahidic jero) signifies the Nile of Egypt (phiaro ente chêmi); on the other, ior (eioor) signifies a ditch, διώρυξ (comp. Isa 33:21, יארים, lxx διώρυχες), vid., Ges. Thes. Thus also Job 28:10 is consistently connected with what precedes, since by cutting these cuniculi the courses of the ore (veins), and any precious stones that may also be embedded there, are laid bare.

Job 28:11

Contrary to the correct indication of the accentuation, Hahn translates: he stops up the droppings of the watercourses; מבּכי has Dech, and is therefore not to be connected with what follows as a genitive. But Reimarus' translation: from the drops he connects the streams, is inadmissible. "The trickling water," he observes, "is carefully caught in channels by the miners for use, and is thus brought together from several parts of the reservoir and the water-wheel. What Pliny calls corrugus, corrivatio,." On the contrary, Schlottm. remarks that חבשׁ cannot signify such a connection, i.e., gathering together of watercourses; it occurs elsewhere only of hunting, i.e., binding up wounds. Nevertheless, although חבשׁ cannot directly signify "to collect," the signification coercere (Job 34:17), which is not far from this idea, - as is evident from the Arab. ḥibs (ḥabs), a dam or sluice for collecting water, and Arab. maḥbas 'l-mâ', a reservoir, cistern, - is easily transferable to water, in the sense of binding = catching up and accumulating. But it is contrary to the form of the expression that מבכי, with this use of חבש, should denote the materia ex qua, and that נהרות should be referred to the miry ditches in which "the crushed ore is washed, for the purpose of separating the good from the worthless." On the contrary, from the form of the expression, it is to be translated: a fletu (not e fletu) flumina obligat, whether it be that a fletu is equivalent to ne flent s. stillent (Simeon Duran: שׁלא יזלו), or obligat equivalent to cohibet (Ralbag: מהזּלה). Thus von Veltheim explains the passage, since he here, as in Job 28:10, understands the channels for carrying off the water. "The miner covers the bottom with mire, and fills up the crevices so exactly i.e., he besmears it, where the channel is broken through, with some water-tight substance, e.g., clay, that it may entirely carry off the water that is caught by it out of the pit in which the shaft terminates, and not let it fall through the fissures crevices to the company of miners below to the vein that lies farther down; then the miner can descend still deeper since the water runs outwards and does not soak through, and bring forth the ore that lies below the channel." This explanation overlooks the fact that יארים is used in Job 28:10, whereas Job 28:11 has נהרות. It is not probable that these are only interchangeable expressions for the channels that carry off the water. יארים is an appropriate expression for it, but not נהרות, which as appropriately describes the conflux of water in the mine itself.

The meaning of Job 28:11 is, that he (the miner) binds or stops the watercourses which his working out of the pit has interfered with and injured, so that they may not leak, i.e., that they may not in the least ooze through, whether by building up a wall or by collecting the water that streams forth in reservoirs (Arab. mahbas) or in the channels which carry it outwards, - all these modes of draining off the water may be included in Job 28:11, only the channel itself is not, with von Veltheim, to be understood by נהרות, but the concourse of the water which, in one way or the other, is rendered harmless to the pit-work, so that he (the miner), as Job 28:11 says, can bring to light (אור = לאור) whatever precious things the bowels of the earth conceals (תּעלמהּ, according to Kimchi and others, with euphonic Mappik, as according to the Masora כבכורהּ Isa 28:4, גשׁמהּ Eze 22:24, and also וגלהּ Zac 4:2, only לתפארת הקריאה ולא לכינוי, i.e., they have Mappik only for euphony, not as the expression of the suff.).

Job 28:12

With the question in Job 28:12 the description of mining attains the end designed: man can search after and find out silver, gold, and others metals and precious stones, by making the foundations of the earth accessible to him; but wisdom, whence shall be obtain it, and which (ואי־זה, according to another reading ואיזה) is the place of understanding? החכמה has the art. to give prominence to its transcendency over the other attainable things. חכמה is the principal name, and בּינה interchanges with it, as תּבוּנה, Pro 8:1, and other synonyms in which the Chokma literature abounds elsewhere in Prov 1-9. בינה is properly the faculty of seeing through that which is distinguishable, consisting of the possession of the right criteria; חכמה, however, is the perception, in general, of things in their true nature and their final causes.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
He, &c. - This and the two next verses mention other eminent works of God, who overturneth rocks, and produceth new rivers.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
He putteth forth his hand upon the rock, - Still there appears to be a reference to mining. Man puts his hand upon the rock, he breaks that to pieces, in order to extract the metals which it contains. He overturneth the mountains - He excavates, undermines, or digs them away, when in search of the metals contained in them: this is not only poetically, but literally, the case in many instances.

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¹⁵ And the LORD [03068] will take away [05493] from thee all sickness [02483], and will put [07760] none of the evil [07451] diseases [04064] of Egypt [04714], which thou knowest [03045], upon thee; but will lay [05414] them upon all them that hate [08130] thee.

¹³ He made him ride [07392] on the high places [01116] of the earth [0776], that he might eat [0398] the increase [08570] of the fields [07704]; and he made him to suck [03243] honey [01706] out of the rock [05553], and oil [08081] out of the flinty [02496] rock [06697];

¹⁵ Who led [03212] thee through that great [01419] and terrible [03372] wilderness [04057], wherein were fiery [08314] serpents [05175], and scorpions [06137], and drought [06774], where there was no water [04325]; who brought thee forth [03318] water [04325] out of the rock [06697] of flint [02496];

⁸ They go up [05927] by the mountains [02022]; they go down [03381] by the valleys [01237] unto the place [04725] which [02088] thou hast founded [03245] for them.

¹ Doth not wisdom [02451] cry [07121]? and understanding [08394] put forth [05414] her voice [06963]?

¹² But where [0370] shall wisdom [02451] be found [04672]? and where is the place [04725] of understanding [0998]?

² And said [0559] unto me, What seest [07200] thou? And I said [0559], I have looked [07200], and behold a candlestick [04501] all of gold [02091], with a bowl [01531] upon the top [07218] of it, and his seven [07651] lamps [05216] thereon, and seven [07651] pipes [04166] to the seven [07651] lamps [05216], which are upon the top [07218] thereof:

²⁴ Son [01121] of man [0120], say [0559] unto her, Thou art the land [0776] that is not cleansed [02891], nor rained [01656] upon in the day [03117] of indignation [02195].

⁴ And the glorious [06643] beauty [08597], which is on the head [07218] of the fat [08081] valley [01516], shall be a fading [05034] flower [06733], and as the hasty fruit [01061] before the summer [07019]; which when he that looketh [07200] upon it seeth [07200], while it is yet in his hand [03709] he eateth it up [01104].

¹¹ He bindeth [02280] the floods [05104] from overflowing [01065]; and the thing that is hid [08587] bringeth he forth [03318] to light [0216].

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

¹⁷ Shall even he that hateth [08130] right [04941] govern [02280]? and wilt thou condemn [07561] him that is most [03524] just [06662]?

¹¹ He bindeth [02280] the floods [05104] from overflowing [01065]; and the thing that is hid [08587] bringeth he forth [03318] to light [0216].

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

²¹ But there the glorious [0117] LORD [03068] will be unto us a place [04725] of broad [07342] [03027] rivers [05104] and streams [02975]; wherein shall go [03212] no [01077] galley [0590] with oars [07885], neither shall gallant [0117] ship [06716] pass [05674] thereby.

¹¹ He bindeth [02280] the floods [05104] from overflowing [01065]; and the thing that is hid [08587] bringeth he forth [03318] to light [0216].

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