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 (1 Kings 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 (Malachi 3:3) by washing. The pure gold or silver thus obtained is called מזקּק (Psalms 12:7; 1 Chronicles 28:18; 1 Chronicles 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 .
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 (Fürst), 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, Palästina , 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 hadı̂ d 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 Françaisarabe 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 Leviticus 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 , Ezekiel 5:10 (to all the winds).
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 Fürst, 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; Psalms 18:31; Psalms 19:11, Ges. §109 ad init. ) of (every) foot (that walks above), they hang (comp. Rabb. מדלדּל , pendulus )
(Note: Vid., Luzzatto on Isaiah 18:5, where זלזלים , of the trembling and quivering twigs, is correctly traced to זלל = דלל = זלל ; on the other hand, Isaiah 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 , Deuteronomy 31:21; Psalms 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 Isaiah 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.
5 The earth-from it cometh forth bread,
And beneath it is turned up like fire.
6 The place of the sapphire are its stones,
And it containeth gold ore.
7 The way, that no bird of prey knoweth,
And the eye of the hawk hath not gazed at,
8 Which the proud beast of prey hath not trodden,
Over which the lion hath not walked.
Job 28:5 is not to be construed as Rosenm.: ad terram quod attinet, ex qua egreditur panis, quod subtus est subvertitur quasi igne ; nor with Schlottm.: (they swing) in the earth, out of which comes bread, which beneath one turns about with fire; for Job 28:5 is not formed so that the Waw of ותחתּיה could be Waw apod., and ארץ cannot signify ”in the interior of the earth” as locativus ; on the contrary, it stands in opposition to תחתיה , that which is beneath the earth, as denoting the surface of the earth (the proper name of which is אדמה , from the root דם , with the primary notion of a flat covering). They are two grammatically independent predicates, the first of which is only the foil of the other: the earth, out of it cometh forth bread ( לחם as Psalms 104:14), and beneath it (the surface of the earth) = that which lies beneath it ( ותחתיה only virtually a subj. in the sense of ותחתּיּותיה , since תּחתּי occurs only as a preposition), is turned about (comp. the construction of the sing. of the verb with the plur. subj. Job 30:15) as (by) fire Instar ignis, scil. subvertentis ); i.e., the earth above furnishes nourishment to man, but that not satisfying him, he also digs out its inward parts (comp. Pliny, h. n. xxxiii. proaem.: in sede Manium opes quaerimus, tanquam parum benigna fertilique quaqua calcatur ), since this is turned or tossed about (comp. מהפּכה , the special word for the overthrow of Sodom by fire) by mining work, as when fire breaks out in a house, or even as when a volcanic fire rumbles within a mountain (Castalio: agunt per magna spatia cuniculos et terram subeunt non secus ac ignis facet ut in Aetna et Vesuvio ). The reading במו (Schlottm.) instead of כמו is natural, since fire is really used to blast the rock, and to separate the ore from the stone; but, with the exception of Jerome, who has arbitrarily altered the text ( terra, de qua oriebatur panis in loco suo, igni subversa est ), all the old translations reproduce כמו , which even Nasse, in opposition to von Veltheim, thinks suitable: Man's restless search, which rummages everything through, is compared to the unrestrainable ravaging fire.
Job 28:6 also consists of two grammatically independent assertions: the place (bed) of the sapphire is its rock. Must we refer לו to ספּיר , and translate: “and it contains fine dust of gold” (Hirz., Umbr., Stick., Nasse)? It is possible, for Theophrastus (p. 692, ed. Schneider ) says of the sapphire it is ὥσπερ χρυσόπαστος , as it were covered with gold dust or grains of gold; and Pliny, h. n. xxxvii. 9, 38f.: Inest ei (cyano) aliquando et aureus pulvis qualis in sapphiris, in iis enim aurum punctis conlucet , which nevertheless does not hold good of the proper sapphire, but of the azure stone ( lapis lazuli ) which is confounded with it, a variegated species of which, with gold, or rather with iron pyrites glittering like gold, is specially valued.
(Note: Comp. Quenstedt, Handbuch der Mineralogie (1863), S. 355 and 302.)
But Schultens rightly observes: vix cerdiderim, illum auratilem pulvisculum sapphiri peculiari mentione dignum ; and Schlottm.: such a collateral definition to ספיר , expressed in a special clause (not a relative one), has something awkward about it. On the other hand, עפרת זהב is a perfectly suitable appellation of gold ore. “The earth, which is in itself black,” says Diodorus in the passage quoted before, “is interspersed with veins of marble, which is of such pre-eminent whiteness, that its brilliance surpasses everything that glitters, and from it the overseers of the mine prepare gold with a large number of workmen.” And further on, of the heating of this gold ore he says: “the hardest auriferous earth they burn thoroughly in a large fire; thus they make it soft, so that it can be worked by the hand.” עפרת זהב is a still more suitable expression for such auriferous earth and ore than for the nuggets of ἄπυρος χρυσός (i.e., unsmelted) of the size of a chestnut, which, according to Diodorus, ii. 50, are obtained in mines in Arabia ( μεταλλεύεται ). But it is inadmissible to refer לו to man, for the clause would then require to be translated: and gold ore is to him = he has, while it is the rather intended to be said that the interior of the earth has gold ore. לו is therefore, with Hahn and Schlottm., to be referred to מקום : and this place of the sapphire, it contains gold. The poet might have written להּ but לו implies that where the sapphire is found, gold is also found. The following נתיב (with Dechî ), together with the following relative clause, is connected with אבניה , or even with מקום , which through Job 28:6 is become the chief subj.: the place of the sapphire and of the gold is the rock of the bowels of the earth, - a way, which, etc., i.e., such a place is the interior of the earth, accessible to no living being of the earth's surface except to man alone. The sight of the bird of prey, the עיט , ἀετός , and of the איּה , i.e., the hawk or kite, reaches from above far and wide beneath;
(Note: The איה - says the Talmud b. Chullin, 63 b - is in Babylon, and seeth a carcase in the land of Israel.)
the sons of pride, שׁחץ (also Talmud. arrogance, ferocia , from שׁחץ = Arab. šachaṣa , to raise one's self, not: fatness, as Meier, after Arab. šachuṣa , to be fat, thick), i.e., the beasts of prey, especially the lion, שׁחל (vid., on Job 4:10, from שׁחל , Arab. sḥl , to roar, Arab. of the ass, comp. the Lat. rudere used both of the lion and of the ass), seek the most secret retreat, and shun no danger; but the way by which man presses forward to the treasures of the earth is imperceptible and inaccessible to them.
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 .