Job 28:1-11

C. SOURCE OF TRUE WISDOM (Job 28:1-28)

1. Man finds hidden treasures of the earth, as in mining. (Job 28:1-11)

TEXT 28:1-11

1 Surely there is a mine for silver,

And a place for gold which they refine.

2 Iron is taken out of the earth,

And copper is molten out of the stone.

3 Man setteth an end to darkness,

And searcheth out, to the farthest bound,
The stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.

4 He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn;

They are forgotten of the foot;
They hang afar from men, they swing to and fro.

5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread;

And underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

6 The stones thereof are the place of sapphires,

And it hath dust of gold.

7 That path no bird of prey knoweth,

Neither hath the falcon's eye seen it:

8 The proud beasts have not trodden it,

Nor hath the fierce lion passed thereby.

9 He putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock;

He overturneth the mountains by the roots.

10 He cutteth out channels among the rocks;

And his eye seeth every precious thing.

11 He bindeth the streams that they trickle not;

And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.

COMMENT 28:1-11

Job 28:1The theme of this marvelous chapter[282] is the transcendence of divine wisdom and its inaccessibility to man. Man may discover certain dimensions of God's wisdom, but human efforts can never completely fathom the divine purpose.[283] This beautiful portion of Job falls into three divisions:

[282] See the doctoral thesis of C. C. Settlemire, The Meaning, Importance, and Original Position of Job 28, Diss. Drew Univ., 1969, cf. Diss. Abstracts, 1969.

[283] For analysis of the Near Eastern and biblical doctrine of wisdom (hokma), see James Wood, Wisdom Literature (London: Duckworth, 1967); H. H. Rowley, Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East, Supplement, V. T., 1955; H. H. Schmid, Eine Untersuchuung zur altorientalischen und israelitischen Weisheitsliteratur, 1966; A. Hulsbosch, Sagesse creatrive et educatrice, Augustinianum, 1961, pp. 217-235; G. von Rad, Wisdom in Israel (Nashville: Abingdon, E. T., 1972), pp. 144-176; U. Wilckens, Weisheit und Torheit, 1959, esp. pp. 174ff; R. B. Y. Scott, Wisdom in Creation, Vetus Testamentum, 1960, pp. 213ff; J. J. van Dipk, La Sagesse Sumero accadienne (Brill, 1953).

(1) There is no known road to attain wisdomJob 28:1-11;

(2) No price can purchase itJob 28:12-19 (Job 28:14-19 are missing from the LXX); and (3) God alone possesses it, and only when God makes it available through special revelation can man possess itJob 28:20-28.

How appropriate this great poem is to contemporary homo faber (man the maker). The Promethian spirit is once more upon us. Technologically dominated man operates on the mythological assumption of his unlimited possibilities. From the Greeks to twentieth century man, optimism has always outrun his concrete performance. This verse clearly means that every valuable thing in creation has a dwelling place. The verse begins with for which continues to trouble commentators because it suggests a logical sequence to something which is no longer in our text. The emphasis in Hebrew is on the there is a source (Heb. mosaplace of coming forth, i.e., the mining of silver and gold). Mosa is used of water in 2 Kings 2:21; Isaiah 41:18; Isaiah 58:11; Psalms 107:33; 2 Chronicles 32:30; and of the sunrise in Psalms 65:9; Psalms 75:7. In this verse the translation requires mine, and there are only a few references to mining in the Old TestamentDeuteronomy 8:9; Jeremiah 10:9; Ezekiel 27:12. After the excavations of the late Nelson Glueck, we have confirmation of the presence of a great copper refinery, from the time of Solomon, near Ezion geber. Silver was not mined, to our knowledge, in Palestine but was imported from TarshishJeremiah 10:9; Ezekiel 27:12. (On Tarshish, see Herodotus, IV. 152.) The name Tarshish is probably derived from the Akkadian word meaning refinery.[284] Gold was imported from OphirIsaiah 13:12; 1 Kings 10:11; 1 Chronicles 29:4; and ShebaPsalms 72:15 and 1 Kings 10:2. The verse is concerned with the source of silver and gold in contrast to wisdom.

[284] W. F. Albright suggests that the ships of Tarshish means refinery fleetBulletin American Society Oriental Research, 1941, pp. 21ff.

Job 28:2The promised land was described as one whose stones are ironDeuteronomy 8:9. In Saul's day the Philistines monopolized the iron deposits1 Samuel 13:19-22; 1 Samuel 17:7. In David's time iron became plentiful. Blommerde takes the second line to read and from stone is the smelting of copper. Copper was smelted very early in PalestineDeuteronomy 8:9. Major sources being Cyprus, in Edom, and in the Sinai Peninsula.[285]

[285] For details from original excavations,'See N. Glueck, Biblical Archaeologist, 1938, pp. 13-16; 1939, pp. 37-41; 1940, pp. 51-55; 1965, pp. 70-87.

Job 28:3The metaphors express how the miners penetrate the dark recesses of the earth with their lamps. Miners open up deep shafts and let the sunlight into the hole. The subject is not expressed in this verse; it literally says one puts an end to darkness, (Hebrew shadows of death, darkness can mean ignorance or unrighteousness, here physical darkness), i.e., there is a limit to which the laborers will goJob 3:5 and Job 26:10.[286]

[286] See R. J. Forbes, Mining and Geology in Antiquity (Brill, 1940); and Bulletin of American Society of Oriental Research, 1938, pp. 3-17; 1939, pp. 8-22; and 1946, pp. 2-18.

Job 28:4Perhaps Graetz's suggestion is best. He proposes that the first line means alien people break shafts, i.e., slave labor is being used to do the mining. The second line suggests that they are deep within the earth and thus the miners are remote from those walking or working above ground. The third line is probably a reference to miners suspended by ropes into the ground and swinging in the dark caverns digging for copper.

Job 28:5As the surface of the earth produces food, so deep below a smelting operation is yielding rich orePsalms 104:14; or perhaps more likely, the mining below produces piles of debris similar to that produced by a fireEzekiel 27:14, where stones of fire are precious gems.

Job 28:6The earth yields not only metals but precious stones. It is impossible to identify the specific gem which the text has in mind, but in view of the poetic parallelism, it is not impossible that lapis lazuli (as R. S. V. marginal reading) is meant; thus the iron pyrites particles found in lapis lazuli which glitters like gold provides a meaning for dust of gold which has already been mentioned in the verse.

Job 28:7The paths of miners are remote from most men, as is wisdom. Birds (perhaps falcon, LXX has vulture) of prey live even more remote from men than do the miners. The bird intended by this reference is impossible to identify with certainty, but the reference to its keenness of sight suggests the falcon. The gold mines worked by the Egyptians in Nubia were more than a seven-days-' journey into the desert. The emphasis here in verses four and seven is on the remoteness and inaccessibility of the mines, and indirectly also of wisdom.

Job 28:8The sons of pride[287] have not even been there, i.e., where wisdom is found. It is imperative that we keep in mind a poetic play on words for originsmasafind and maqomplace, source of origin. Man and beast can find many valuable things, but not wisdom. Even the fierce lion (Heb. sahalJob 4:10 ff; Hosea 5:14; Hosea 13:7; Proverbs 26:13) has not been there, i.e., where wisdom is found.

[287] Only here and Job 41:26, see Sigmund Mowinckel, Hebrew and Semitic Studies, presented to G. R. Driver, eds. D. W. Thomas and W. D. McHardy, 1963, p. 97, for his effort to connect with mythology. It is an unwarranted claim in a context of real birds and beasts.

Job 28:9The images hereJob 28:9-11as in Job 28:3-4 emphasize man's stubborn insistence in searching for treasure (note Jesus and the Pearl of Great Price). Human achievement emphasizing homo faber is the central thrust of the images. Flint, the hardest rock, yields to his persuasive insistence, and the mountains maintain only momentary resistance.

Job 28:10The word rendered channels (ye-'orim) is the plural of the designation of the Nile, ye or, the one which also describes the Nile. It can refer to mine shafts or drainage ditchesIsaiah 33:21. Example of cutting through solid rock is the Siloam tunnel, and the rock city of Petra.

Job 28:11Difficulties in this verse can be overcome by taking the suggestions of some that the meaning is that of a man exploring the sources of rivers by digging down to their underground springs. This also provides a parallel with the next line.[288]

[288] For this suggestion, see M. Mansoor, Revue de Qumran, 1961-2, pp. 392ff; and G. M. Landes, Bulletin of American Society of Oriental Research, 1956, pp. 32ff.