Job 28

There is a mine where silver is found, and a place where gold is refined.

1Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.

NoteThe chapter opens with a description of ancient deep mining, which was a real and highly developed industry in the world of the Old Testament: shafts were sunk for copper and turquoise in Sinai and the Negev, and for gold in Egypt and Nubia. "Fine" in the King James means refine, that is, to melt ore and separate out the pure metal.

2Iron is dug out of the ground, and copper is melted out of the rock.

2Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.

NoteThe King James "brass" does not mean brass in the modern sense. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc that was not made in the ancient Near East. The Hebrew word means copper, or bronze, which is copper alloyed with tin.

3A miner puts an end to the darkness. He searches to the farthest limit for ore hidden in gloom as deep as the shadow of death.

3He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.

Note"The shadow of death" translates a single Hebrew word that means thick or deathly darkness. It does not necessarily refer to dying; it is the ordinary Hebrew term for the deepest kind of gloom, the sort found underground or in the grave.

4He digs a shaft far away from where anyone lives, in places human feet have forgotten. Far from other people, he hangs and sways.

4The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.

NoteThe Hebrew of this verse is among the most difficult in the book, and translators differ considerably. The general picture is of a mine shaft sunk in uninhabited country, with the miner suspended on a rope far from any other person. The King James "the flood breaketh out from the inhabitant" reflects a different reading of the same consonants.

5Food grows out of the surface of the earth, but underneath, the ground is torn up as if by fire.

5As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

NoteThis can be read two ways, and the Hebrew leaves both open: either that miners tear up and burn the ground beneath fields that grow food, or that the earth's underside is a place of fire. Ancient miners did use fire-setting, heating rock until it cracked, to break it apart.

6Its rocks are the place where sapphires are found, and its dust holds specks of gold.

6The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold.

NoteThe stone called "sapphire" in older translations is almost certainly lapis lazuli, a deep blue stone flecked with gold-colored pyrite, mined in Afghanistan and traded across the ancient world. Sapphire as we know it was not worked in this period. The flecks of gold in the verse fit lapis exactly.

7There is a path down there that no bird of prey knows about, and no falcon's eye has ever seen it.

7There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen:

NoteBirds of prey were proverbial in the ancient world for the sharpest eyesight of any creature. The point is that even the keenest eye in nature has never seen the miner's tunnel.

8No proud wild animal has ever walked on that path. No lion has ever prowled along it.

8The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.

NoteThe King James "the lion's whelps" and the modern "proud beasts" both render a Hebrew phrase meaning literally "sons of pride," a stock expression for large, majestic wild animals. Lions were still found in the region in biblical times.

9The miner lays his hand on the hard rock and digs mountains up by their roots.

9He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots.

10He cuts channels through the rock, and his eye spots every precious thing.

10He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing.

11He dams up the streams so they cannot leak through, and he brings what was hidden out into the light.

11He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.

NoteThe Hebrew here is disputed. One reading, followed by the King James, has the miner damming back water that would flood his workings; another has him searching out the sources of underground streams. Both amount to the miner mastering water in order to reach what is buried.

12But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding live?

12But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?

13No one knows what wisdom is worth, and it is not found anywhere in the land of the living.

13Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.

Note"The land of the living" is a standard Hebrew expression for the world of people who are still alive, as opposed to the realm of the dead. Note also that the Hebrew word rendered "price" is read by some ancient versions as "way" or "place," which would make the line say that no one knows the road to wisdom.

14The deep waters say, "It is not in me." The sea says, "It is not with me."

14The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.

Note"The deep" is the Hebrew word for the vast body of water thought to lie beneath the earth, the source of springs and of the sea. Here it and the sea are pictured speaking, as the two deepest places a person could imagine.

15It cannot be bought with gold. Silver cannot be weighed out to pay its price.

15It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.

NoteCoinage did not exist when this was written. Silver was paid by weight, which is why the verse speaks of silver being weighed out rather than counted. The word behind "gold" in the first line means something like "enclosed" or "treasured" gold, that is, gold of the finest sort.

16It cannot be priced against the gold of Ophir, or against costly onyx or sapphire.

16It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

NoteOphir was a place famous as a source of the highest quality gold; its location is unknown, and suggestions have included southern Arabia, the coast of Africa and India. "Gold of Ophir" functioned as a byword for the best gold obtainable, much as we might say Swiss watch. The exact stones meant by the Hebrew words translated "onyx" and "sapphire" are uncertain.

17Gold and crystal cannot match it. It cannot be traded for objects made of fine gold.

17The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.

Note"Crystal" may mean rock crystal or, more probably, glass. Glass in this period was rare, made in small quantities, and valued alongside precious stones rather than treated as a cheap material.

18Coral and pearls are not even worth mentioning next to it, because the price of wisdom is higher than rubies.

18No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.

NoteThe Hebrew names for these gems and materials cannot all be identified with certainty. The word rendered "pearls" may mean rock crystal or jasper, and the word rendered "rubies" is often taken as red coral or pearls. What is clear is that the list names the most expensive things a person of that time could buy.

19Topaz from Ethiopia cannot match it. It cannot be priced against pure gold.

19The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

Note"Ethiopia" translates Cush, the region of the Nile south of Egypt, corresponding roughly to modern Sudan and southern Egypt rather than to the modern country of Ethiopia. The "topaz" of ancient writers was probably the yellow-green stone we call peridot, mined on an island in the Red Sea.

20So where does wisdom come from? Where does understanding live?

20Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?

21It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, and kept out of sight from the birds of the sky.

21Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

22The place of ruin and Death itself say, "We have only heard a rumor about it."

22Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "destruction" is Abaddon, a name for the place of ruin where the dead go, used as a near synonym for the grave. Here Abaddon and Death are addressed as if they were persons who could be questioned, a common way of speaking in Hebrew poetry.

23God understands the way to wisdom, and he knows the place where it is.

23God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.

24For he looks out to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the whole sky.

24For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven;

25He was the one who set how much the wind should weigh and measured out how much water there would be.

25To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.

NoteWeighing the wind and measuring water are the actions of a merchant with scales and measuring vessels. The image is of setting fixed quantities, as a trader does when filling an order.

26He made a rule for the rain and marked out a path for the thunderbolt.

26When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

27Back then he saw wisdom and set out what it was worth. He established it and examined it closely.

27Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.

NoteThe verbs in this verse are the vocabulary of appraisal used earlier in the chapter for pricing precious things, and of the prospector's search: God sized wisdom up, declared its value, set it in place and searched it out, doing to wisdom what the miner does to ore.

28And he said to man, "Look: the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding."

28And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

Note"The fear of the LORD" is a fixed Hebrew expression meaning reverence or awe before God, and the attitude of life that follows from it; it does not mean being frightened. Where the King James prints LORD in capitals it is standing in for the personal name of God, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud; in this one verse, however, the Hebrew actually has the ordinary word for "Lord" or "master," the only place in the book of Job where it appears.