Job 27

SURELY there is [a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.] Or, a wine

By these expressions was denoted the happiness or misery of good or bad souls, in the intermediate state between their death and resurrection. Dr. Hales.

—where they fine it] Rather, “which (both the silver and the gold) they fine.” Neither silver nor gold is fined in the mine itself. The fining of these metals is mentioned as another instance of man’s ability, distinct from his searching them out in the mine. Arabia Felix had anciently its mines of gold, Ps. lxxii. 15, “to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba;” in the Septuagint and Arabic versions, “the gold of Arabia.” Sheba was the ancient name of Arabia Felix. Job, who dwelt in Arabia Petrea, could be no stranger to the riches of that neighbouring country. Scott.

Job 27:2

2. As God liveth, &c.] As God liveth, who hath not yet given any outward and sensible signification that He hath taken notice of my cause, to clear and avenge me; but, on the contrary, hath laid many sore afflictions upon me. Bp. Hall.

2—4. As God liveth, &c.] The whole passage will be equally clear, if literally rendered thus: “The living God hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty hath embittered my soul; but all the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, surely my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.” Dr. Durell.

2.—brass] He probably means the natural or red brass, which is copper. The modern brass, which the French name yellow copper, is factitious, being made of copper fused with the calamine stone. Scott.

—out of the stone.] With which it is mixed and incorporated in the earth; but by fire and the art of the metallist is separated from it, and taken out of it. Poole.

Job 27:3

3. He setteth an end to darkness, &c.] “The stones of darkness,” and “the shadow of death,” must surely mean the metallicl ore in the deep and dark parts of the earth. The agent then who searcheth them out must be man. He also it is whose pride and presumption “setteth an end to darkness;” that is, contracts its bounds by carrying light into the subterraneous caverns when he works the mines. Scott.

—and searcheth out all perfection:] Or, more clearly, “he searcheth to every extremity the stones of darkness, &c.” that is, he follows the vein of metallicl ore as far as it goes. Scott.

Job 27:4

4. The flood breaketh out &c.] As the author of the book of Job was perhaps the most concise writer that ever appeared in the world, and his language the most concise; he just gives a glimpse of things, and leaves the rest to be supplied by the imagination of the reader. His thoughts are, like the gold and jewels he speaks of, precious in themselves: but we must sometimes labour hard and go deep for them. Of this we have a farther proof in what follows; where he proceeds to give another instance of the daring spirit and ingenuity of mankind. How they cross the broad rivers and arms of the sea for commerce; where there is no path for the foot of man; where they lessen to the sight, and are tossed upon the waves. This appears to be the meaning of the fourth verse, which may be literally rendered thus; “the flood interrupts from the stranger; forgotten of the foot, they appear less than men, they are tossed;” their feet forget them, and are no longer serviceable to them in this very different way of travelling; they lessen to the sight, as they go off farther and farther from the shores; and, lastly, are tossed up and down upon the billows. The same expression is used, Ps. cvii. 27. Peters.

Otherwise, it is evident that this chapter of Job relates to mineralogy and mining: thus then I would explain this difficult verse: “A torrent bursteth forth from the rubbish, forgotten,” not thought of, or in a word unexpectedly. “By the foot,” that is, an engine worked by the foot, “they are drawn off, by man they are removed.” The following quotation from Mr. Catcott’s treatise on the Deluge is an excellent though undesigned

of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.

Job 27:5

5—8. God forbid that I should justify you: &c.] Though I am quite cast down, as miserable as it is possible to be, in this life; yet God forbid that I should justify your censures of me, by owning that I have played the hypocrite, or been secretly wicked. No, whatever shall befall me, I am resolved that I will still maintain and still hold fast my integrity: I will sooner die than confess the guilt you charge me with. “Let mine enemy be as the wicked;” let him flourish and prosper here as much as his heart can wish, (and he had before shewn that they often do so;) but “what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? that is, what can he think will become of him after death? what comfort can such an one possibly entertain in the prospect of futurity?” Peters. 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Can he find comfort in God, when the world affords none? which I do now. Will he call upon God in prosperity as well as adversity? There must be a delight in God before there will be any perseverance in duty. Clark.

5. As for the earth, &c.] Here he appears to represent the dangers to which miners are exposed, and which avarice is bold enough to venture through. The surface of the earth produceth corn and other fruits for the sustenance of man and beast: but underneath it is turned to be as it were fire. Its caverns abound with inflammable minerals, for instance sulphur. The sulphurous air in mines has been known sometimes to take fire from the candles of the workmen, and to destroy the miners. Or perhaps he referreth to the “slime pits” in “the vale of Siddim,” near the place which was afterwards turned into a lake, and called the Dead sea. Those slime-pits were holes, out of which issued a liquid bitumen, or naphtha, an oily substance. Hanway, in his Travels into Persia, describes some fountains of naphtha, which were actually burning near Baku on the western coast of the Caspian sea. Chaldea abounded with them. The walls of Babylon were cemented with the bitumen or slime. Scott.

Job 27:6

6—11. As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: &c.] Job continues in the following verses to give farther instances of the daring and yet successful attempts of mankind to provide themselves with every necessary and convenience of life: such as corn for bread, ver. 5; fountains of water in the dry places, where they are wanted, cut out of the hard rock, ver. 10; and rapid rivers restrained within their channels to prevent the mischiefs of their overflow, ver. 11: to which he adds again, gold, and sapphire, and other precious stones, dug deep from the caverns of the earth, where “the lion’s foot never trod, nor the vulture’s eye hath reached,” ver. 7, 8. In short, that there is scarcely any thing so concealed but what the industry of man had brought to light, wisdom alone excepted; for all this is designed to introduce the great question, ver. 12, “But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?” Peters. In the notes which follow, to the end of the 11th verse, a different interpretation is given of some parts of this obscure passage.

6. The stones of it are the place &c.] Here is the temptation to risk the aforementioned dangers: the rocky earth in those subterraneous caverns is the country and birth-place of sapphires, and other precious stones. There also men find glebes of gold, or golden ore. Scott.

Job 27:7

7, 8. There is a path &c.] These two verses are a poetical illustration of man’s intrepidity in penetrating these dangerous regions of darkness. The fiercest and most daring creatures of prey would not venture into them: “A path which the fowls of prey know not, &c.” He means, the path which leads to the place of sapphires and golden ore; the way into the mines. Scott.

Job 27:11

11. I will teach you by the hand of God.] Rather, “I will instruct you in the power of God;” as the word is rendered, Prov. xviii. 21. Dr. Durell.

Job 27:12

12. Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it.] Behold, there is not one of you but hath, by his own experience, found what I am about to say to be certainly true: and yet, such is your vanity, you will defend an ungrounded opinion. Bp. Patrick.

Job 27:13

13. This is the portion of a wicked man with God.] I grant that a wicked man (but not all wicked men, as you maintain) sometimes receives such punishments from God as he deserves; which might make other Before CHRIST about 1820. a Mact. 16. 26. b Prov. 1. 25. Exch. 8. 15. John 9. 21. Jany. 4. 3. The blessings which the wicked have CHAP. XXVII, XXVIII. are turned into curses. is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Job 27:14

14. — shall not be satisfied with bread.] Shall be starved for want of food. Clark.

Job 27:15

15. — shall be buried in death:] “Shall rot unburied.” The learned Schultens seems to have given the true meaning of the passage, “they shall have death for their burial;” that is, they shall be reduced to so great a degree of misery, that where they die, there they shall rot; and no person shall bury them. This is put in contrast with the costly monuments of the rich. Heath.

Job 27:16

16. Though he heap up silver as the dust.] Sir J. Chardin tells us, in his note on this passage, that it is customary through all the East to gather together an immense collection of furniture and clothes, for their fashions never alter. They keep them up in wardrobes, as they heap up mud for mortar in building. Harmer.

Job 27:19

19. — as a moth.] His house shall be as easily destroyed as the dwelling of the moth, which falls a prey to herself. Grotius.

— as a booth] Like a temporary hut in a garden or vineyard to shelter the guard, who suffers it to fall when the season is over. The same image occurs, Isai. i. 8; Lam. ii. 6. Bp. Stock.

Job here teaches us, that although worldly men may live in affluence, heap up riches, and leave them to their children, their ill-gotten wealth soon passes away, and their posterity are often exposed to want and disgrace.

These are visible marks of God’s justice towards the wicked; and should serve as a powerful antidote against injustice, pride, and the love of the world. Ostervald.

19. The rich man shall lie down, &c.] Peters thus ingeniously explains this important passage: “The wicked rich man” (for of such Job was speaking) “shall die, but shall not be gathered” to the assembly of good and pious souls: “he openeth his eyes” in the other world “and is not,” or finds himself lost and miserable. He observes, that the phrase of “being gathered to their fathers,” or “to their peoples,” is confined in Scripture to the eminently good and pious. Thus it is applied to Abraham, Gen. xv. 15; xxv. 8; to Isaac, Gen. xxxv. 29; to Moses, Numb. xxvii. 13; xxxi. 2; to David, Acts xiii. 36; to Josiah, 2 Kings xxii. 20: whereas the general expression applied to good and bad indifferently is, to “lie down,” or “sleep with their fathers;” as Jeroboam, 1 Kings xiv. 20; Rehoboam, 1 Kings xiv. 31, &c. To “lie with the uncircumcised” is applied to the wicked; as Pharaoh, Ezek. xxxii. 19—28, &c. for “the uncircumcised shall be cut off from his peoples,” Gen. xvii. 14.

waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.

Job 27:20

20, 21. Terrors take hold on him] The horror and distraction of a wicked man on his death-bed are here described in a very lively manner. He dies, as most wicked men do, in the utmost tumult and confusion. Peters.

A sudden landflood in the night, no uncommon thing in Arabia, and a furious storm of wind, are the strong images by which such a death is represented. Scott.

Job 27:21

21. The east wind] This is the most boisterous and the most destructive wind that blows in these countries; see the note on chap. xv. 2. It is most violent in the night. Scott.

Job 27:23

23. Men shall clap their hands at him.] The striking of one hand against the other with some smartness, which we mean by the term “clapping of the hands,” might, and I believe did, obtain amenity, as an expression of joy; not unfrequently, if not always, of the malignant kind. Compare what Jeremiah says of Jerusalem, when it was destroyed, Lam. ii. 15. Harmer.

Chap. XXVIII. This chapter, as it is one of the most beautiful and instructive, so perhaps we might add, it is the most obscure of this book. The subject proposed in it is an inquiry after wisdom; not the wisdom of God, by which we mean the unsearchable depth of His counsels, but wisdom in general, or rather the wisdom proper to man, which therefore, in the last verse, is pointed out as the result of the preceding inquiry.

The chapter begins with a fine description of the indefatigable industry and ardour of mankind in searching after other things, which contribute either to the uses or the ornament of life: how they dig into the bowels of the earth for metals, gold, silver, iron, brass. And though the great Creator hath placed a boundary betwixt light and darkness, yet the industry or avarice of man is without bounds. He searcheth into the land of darkness itself for hid treasures. Peters.

Ver. 1—11. Surely there is a vein &c.] The first verse speaks of mines: the eleventh verse, which concludes the paragraph, mentioneth man’s bringing the riches of them into daylight: the intermediate verses, therefore, may in reason be supposed to relate to the same subject. Scott.

— a place for gold] So the Arabians called the mine. “Gold,” says one of their poets, “is thrown away like earth in its places:” it has no value in the mine. Scott.

Man may search deep into nature. Before CHRIST about 1598. Or, dust.