Job 19:24

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!] Or "that they were written with an iron pen and lead, that they were cut or hewn out in a rock for ever"; not with both an iron

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! Pen - graver. Lead - poured into the engraven characters, to make them better seen (Umbreit).

An iron pen; of which also there is mention . And lead; or, or lead; or, with lead; the particle and being oft so used, as . For this lead may be either, 1. The writing pen, which might be either of iron or of lead; for though lead be of itself too soft, yet there was an art of tempering lead with other metals to such a degree of hardness that it could pierce into a rock; as they did-also temper brass, so that they could make bows and swords of it. Or, 2. The writing table; for the ancients did use to write divers things in lead, as is well known. Or, 3. The writing ink, as I may call it; for they used to grave the letters in a stone with an iron tool, and then to fill up the cuts or furrows made in the stone with lead, that the words might be more plainly seen and read.

Job 19:24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!Ver. 24. That they were graven with an iron pen, &c.] That my words were not only scripta sed sculpta, written, but graven in a rock, as the laws of various nations were cut in brass or marble; and as monuments and epitaphs are graven on tombs for remembrance of those that are dead. And lead] Plumbo per sulcos infuso, saith Junius, the cuts of the letters in marble being filled with lead, that they might be the more legible and durable. In the rock] In marble cut out of the rock. Golden words they are indeed that here follow, and well worthy to be written in letters of gold. In the Life of Zisca (that warlike Bohemian) it is recorded, that in the famous monastery called the king’ s court, a mile from Prague, in the walls thereof the whole Bible was most exquisitely engraven in letters of gold (Clarke’ s Lives). For ever!] To last longer than the world lasteth. Those bloody tyrants of the primitive times made account they had made sure work in rooting out true religion, when they sounded the triumph beforehand, and engraved the victory upon pillars of marble in these bubbles of words: Nomine Christianorum deleto qui Remp. evertebant, &c. The name of the Christians I have erased who … But Christ shall reign, and the Church shall stand upon his right hand as a queen in gold of Ophir, Psalms 45:9, when all earthly greatness shall lie in the dust. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever," Psalms 45:6; and there shall be a new sucession of saints to all perpetuity. Psalms 72:17, "His name shall endure for ever; his name shall be continued (Heb. childed) as long as the sun," as long as the world, as long as the word of our God, which, according to Job’ s wish here, shall stand for ever, Isaiah 40:8. But what meaneth the Vulgate translation here by this insignificant word Celte? Celte vox est nihili (Merc.). And why should Hugo seek to solve the matter, by telling us that celtis is a tool wherewith letters or pictures are cut in the flint? Whereupon, Vide, quaeso, mi Lector, saith Brentius, See, I pray thee, good reader, how oddly they interpret Scripture that lack learning; for neither is celte such a tool, nor can it be celte for certe, since the Hebrew word lagnad doth not signify surely, but for ever.

Verse 24. Iron pen and lead] Some suppose that the meaning of this place is this: the iron pen is the chisel by which the letters were to be deeply cut in the stone or rock; and the lead was melted into those cavities in order to preserve the engraving distinct. But this is not so natural a supposition as what is stated above; that Job refers to the different kinds of writing or perpetuating public events, used in his time: and the quotations from Pliny and Pausanias confirm the opinion already expressed.

24. In Job 19:23 Job longed that his words were written. But ordinary writing is perishable. And now he desires that his words were hewn in indelible characters upon the rock. The “lead” was probably run into the traces cut in the stone. It need not be said that “the rock” like “the book” means merely rock, and not any particular rock.

That they were graven - Cut in, or sculptured - as is done on stones. That they might become thus a permanent record. With an iron pen - A stylus, or an engraving tool - for so the word (עט ‛êṭ) means.

24. Since ink, parchment, and metal may perish, Job desires that the momentous truth he is about to utter may be chiseled into the rock; and, that the characters may be forever legible, he would have them filled in with lead.