Job 28:4

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

Three hardships in mining:

(1) 'A stream (flood) breaks out at the side of the stranger' х mee`im (H5973) gaar (H1481) - literally, from alongside the stranger]: namely, the miner, a strange new-comer into places heretofore unexplored; his surprise at the sudden stream breaking out beside him is expressed (English version, from the inhabitant). Maurer and Gesenius translate, 'A shaft (or gully-like pit) is broken open far from the inhabitant' (the dwellers on the surface of the earth).

(2) "Forgotten" (unsupported), by the foot they hang, by ropes, in descending. In the Hebrew, 'Lo there' [ha-] precedes this clause graphically placing it as if before the eye. The waters are inserted by the English version. Are dried up ought to be, 'hang,' 'are suspended' х daluw (H1809), from daalaah (H1802), to draw. The English version takes it from daalal (H1809), wasted]. The English version perhaps understood waters of whose existence man was previously unconscious, and near which he never trod; and yet man's energy is such that, by pumps, etc., he soon causes them to 'dry up and go away,' (so Herder).

(3) 'Far away from men, they move with uncertain step;' they stagger: not 'they are gone,' as the English version х naa`uw (H5128), from nuwa`, to be shaken] (Umbreit).