Job 28:11

he bindeth the floods from overflowing Rather, he bindeth up the streams that they drip not, lit. that they weep not.The reference is to the use of lime or clay to prevent water percolating into the mine. "The picturesque phrase (-that they weep not") may have been a technical term among miners in ancient times, just as our colliers name the action of the water that percolates through and into their workings weeping, and our navvies call the fine sand which percolates through the sides of a tunnel cryingsand" (Cox, Comm. on Job, p. 360).

These references to mining operations shew that the Writer was familiar with them. The frequent allusions to Egypt indicate that the Author of the Book was well acquainted with that country, and possibly the mines that were extensively worked in the peninsula of Sinai would be an object of interest to travellers from Palestine to Egypt. It appears, however, that mining was in ancient times carried on in the Hauran and even in the Lebanon; and in Deuteronomy 8:9 Palestine is described as "a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass."