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The stones thereof are the place of sapphires, And it hath dust of gold.
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Commentary on Job 28 verses 1–11
1 ¶ Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.
2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.
3 He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.
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.
5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.
6 The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold.
7 There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen:
8 The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.
9 He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots.
10 He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing.
11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
Here Job shows, 1. What a great way the wit of man may go in diving into the depths of nature and seizing the riches of it, what a great deal of knowledge and wealth men may, by their ingenious and industrious searches, make themselves masters of. But does it therefore follow that men may, by their wit, comprehend the reasons why some wicked people prosper and others are punished, why some good people prosper and others are afflicted? No, by no means. The caverns of the earth may be discovered, but not the counsels of heaven. 2. What a great deal of care and pains worldly men take to get riches. He had observed concerning the wicked man (Job 27:16) that he heaped up silver as the dust; now here he shows whence that silver came which he was so fond of and how it was obtained, to show what little reason wicked rich men have to be proud of their wealth and pomp. Observe here,
I. The wealth of this world is hidden in the earth. Thence the silver and the gold, which afterwards they refine, are fetched, Job 28:1. There they lay mixed with a great deal of dirt and dross, like a worthless thing, of no more account than common earth; and abundance of them will so lie neglected, till the earth and all the works therein shall be burnt up. Holy Mr. Herbert, in his poem called Avarice, takes notice of this, to shame men out of the love of money: -
Money, thou bane of bliss, thou source of woe,
Whence com'st thou, that thou art so fresh and fine?
I know thy parentage is base and low;
Man found thee poor and dirty in a mine.
Surely thou didst so little contribute
To this great kingdom which thou now hast got
That he was fain, when thou wast destitute,
To dig thee out of thy dark cave and grot.
Man calleth thee his wealth, who made thee rich,
And while he digs out thee falls in the ditch.
Iron and brass, less costly but more serviceable metals, are taken out of the earth (Job 28:2), and are there found in great abundance, which abates their price indeed, but is a great kindness to man, who could much better be without gold than without iron. Nay, out of the earth comes bread, that is, bread-corn, the necessary support of life, Job 28:5. Thence man's maintenance is fetched, to remind him of his own original; he is of the earth, and is hastening to the earth. Under it is turned up as it were fire, precious stones, that sparkle as fire - brimstone, that is apt to take fire - coal, that is proper to feed fire. As we have our food, so we have our fuel, out of the earth. There the sapphires and other gems are, and thence gold-dust is digged up;, Job 28:6. The wisdom of the Creator has placed these things, 1. Out of our sight, to teach us not to set our eyes upon them, Pro 23:5. 2. Under our feet, to teach us not to lay them in our bosoms, nor to set our hearts upon them, but to trample upon them with a holy contempt. See how full the earth is of God's riches (Psa 104:24) and infer thence, not only how great a God he is whose the earth is and the fulness thereof (Psa 24:1), but how full heaven must needs be of God's riches, which is the city of the great King, in comparison with which this earth is a poor country.
II. The wealth that is hidden in the earth cannot be obtained but with a great deal of difficulty. 1. It is hard to be found out: there is but here and there a vein for the silver, Job 28:1. The precious stones, though bright themselves, yet, because buried in obscurity and out of sight, are called stones of darkness and the shadow of death. Men may search long before they light on them. 2. When found out it is hard to be fetched out. Men's wits must be set on work to contrive ways and means to get this hidden treasure into their hands. They must with their lamps set an end to darkness; and if one expedient miscarry, one method fail, they must try another, till they have searched out all perfection, and turned every stone to effect it, Job 28:3. They must grapple with subterraneous waters (Job 28:4, Job 28:10, Job 28:11), and force their way through rocks which are, as it were, the roots of the mountains, Job 28:9. Now God has made the getting of gold, and silver, and precious stones, so difficult, (1.) For the exciting and engaging of industry. Dii laboribus omnia vendunt - Labour is the price which the gods affix to all things. If valuable things were too easily obtained men would never learn to take pains. But the difficulty of gaining the riches of this earth may suggest to us what violence the kingdom of heaven suffers. (2.) For the checking and restraining of pomp and luxury. What is for necessity is had with a little labour from the surface of the earth; but what is for ornament must be dug with a great deal of pains out of the bowels of it. To be fed is cheap, but to be fine is chargeable.
III. Though the subterraneous wealth is thus hard to obtain, yet men will have it. He that loves silver is not satisfied with silver, and yet is not satisfied without it; but those that have much must needs have more. See here, 1. What inventions men have to get this wealth. They search out all perfection, Job 28:3. They have arts and engines to dry up the waters, and carry them off, when they break in upon them in their mines and threaten to drown the work, Job 28:4. They have pumps, and pipes, and canals, to clear their way, and, obstacles being removed, they tread the path which no fowl knoweth (Job 28:7, Job 28:8), unseen by the vulture's eye, which is piercing and quick-sighted, and untrodden by the lion's whelps, which traverse all the paths of the wilderness. 2. What pains men take, and what vast charge they are at, to get this wealth. They work their way through the rocks and undermine the mountains, Job 28:10. 3. What hazards they run. Those that dig in the mines have their lives in their hands; for they are obliged to bind the floods from overflowing (Job 28:11), and are continually in danger of being suffocated by damps or crushed or buried alive by the fall of the earth upon them. See how foolish man adds to his own burden. He is sentenced to eat bread in the sweat of his face; but, as if that were not enough, he will get gold and silver at the peril of his life, though the more is gotten the less valuable it is. In Solomon's time silver was as stones. But, 4. Observe what it is that carries men through all this toil and peril: Their eye sees every precious thing, Job 28:10. Silver and gold are precious things with them, and they have them in their eye in all these pursuits. They fancy they see them glittering before their faces, and, in the prospect of laying hold of them, they make nothing of all these difficulties; for they make something of their toil at last: That which is hidden bringeth he forth to light, Job 28:11. What was hidden under ground is laid upon the bank; the metal that was hidden in the ore is refined from its dross and brought forth pure out of the furnace; and then he thinks his pains well bestowed. Go to the miners then, thou sluggard in religion; consider their ways, and be wise. Let their courage, diligence, and constancy in seeking the wealth that perisheth shame us out of slothfulness and faint-heartedness in labouring for the true riches. How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! How much easier and safer! Yet gold is sought for, but grace neglected. Will the hopes of precious things out of the earth (so they call them, though really they are paltry and perishing) be such a spur to industry, and shall not the certain prospect of truly precious things in heaven be much more so?
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–11. Public domain.
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Gregory the DialogistAD 604
52. The proclaim of the glory going before adds to the guilt of the sin following after. For the fall of every individual is of worse criminality, in proportion as before he fell he had the power to be of greater excellency. Thus let it be told of Judaea, let it be told what she was, and let the greatness of the excellencies going before grow into the heightening of the delinquencies succeeding afterwards, Her stones were the place of sapphires, arid her clods of gold, What do we understand in this place by ‘gold,’ but the minds of the Saints and strong ones? For in Holy Scripture ‘stones’ are wont to be taken sometimes on the side of bad and sometimes on the side of good, For when a’ stone’ is put for insensibility, by ‘stones’ we have hard hearts denoted. Whence also it is said by John; God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham [Matt. 3, 9]; who, surely, by the name of’ stones’ denotes the hearts of the Gentiles, at that time hard and insensible in respect of unbelief, And by the Prophet the Lord promises, saying, And I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you an heart of flesh. [Ez. 11, 19] Again by ‘stones’ the minds of the strong ones are used to be denoted. And hence it is said to the Saints by Peter, Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood. [1 Pet. 2, 5] And by the Prophet the Lord promises to the Church when she comes, saying, Behold, I will lay down thy stones in order, and lay thy foundations with sapphires; and I will make thy bulwarks jasper, and thy gates in cut stones, and all thy borders into pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. [Is. 54, 11-13] For He did ‘lay down in her the stones in order,’ in that He distinguished the holy souls in her by the diverseness of merits, He ‘laid her foundation in sapphires,’ which same stones retain in themselves the likeness of the colour of the air, because the strength of the Church is firmly based in souls seeking after heavenly things. And because a jasper is of a green hue, He ‘made his bulwarks of the jasper,’ because they are advanced against her adversaries in the defence of Holy Church, who growing green and fresh by interior desires, do not die off by any drying up of damnable lukewarmness. But He ‘set her gates in cut stones.’ For those are the ‘gates’ of the Church, by whose life and teaching the multitude of those that believe enter into her, Who also for this reason, that they are rich in great deeds, and that-what by speaking they declare, by living they exhibit, are described to be not plain but’ cut stones.’ For in whosesoever life right practice is seen, there is as it were represented in those same persons what they have done. Where also embracing all the number of the Elect in a general roll, he added, and all thy borders in pleasant stones. And as though we, on hearing these things, begged that he would make known those stones that he spoke of, he added, All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And therefore because from out of Judaea there were never wanting holy souls, to lead a heavenly life, it is said, he?’ stones are the place of sapphires. And because with an extraordinary brightness of life and of wisdom she shone forth by faith, it is added, and her clods gold. What is denoted by ‘clods,’ but the assemblages and multitudes of the several orders? Now clods are compacted of moisture and dust; and so all they that being watered with the dew of grace confessed with a true-sighted knowledge that by the debt of death they are dust, whilst they were made to shine bright by excellency of life, lay in her like’ clods of gold.’ ‘Clods’ this earth had in the Prophets,’ clods’ she had in the teachers, ‘clods’ in the Ancient Fathers, who by an extraordinary infusion of grace kept themselves close in unanimity of profession and of practice. Therefore let him say, And the clods of it gold; because therein the multitude of the spiritual souls shone with greater perfection, in proportion as it bound itself up in God and its neighbour with greater unanimity.
53. But this gold was afterwards dimmed by the darkness of unbelief. Whose blackness, surely, the Prophet Jeremiah surveying laments, saying, How is the gold become dim? how is the most fine gold changed! For ‘the gold is become dim,’ in that that ancient brilliancy in them of faith and innocency, upon unbelief coming upon them, dulled itself with the night of wickedness. Therefore, what it was since we have heard, even that her stollen are the place of sapphires, now let us bear next wherefore that People so beloved of God lost these great blessings.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Job 28:6, situated within the profound "Hymn to Wisdom," vividly illustrates humanity's extraordinary ingenuity and relentless determination in extracting the earth's most precious and hidden treasures. This verse specifically highlights the deep subterranean mines where "sapphires" are found and "dust of gold" abounds, showcasing the immense material wealth that human effort can unearth from the very bedrock of the world. It serves as a powerful testament to human capability in the physical realm, setting the stage for a deeper theological contrast regarding the true source and inestimable value of divine wisdom.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 28:6, within its broader context, masterfully employs several literary devices. The most prominent is Imagery, creating vivid mental pictures of deep, dark mines yielding sparkling sapphires and glistening gold dust. This sensory detail immerses the reader in the arduous yet rewarding pursuit of earthly treasures. There is also a strong element of Symbolism, where sapphires and gold symbolize the pinnacle of earthly wealth, beauty, and human achievement in acquiring material possessions. These tangible treasures serve as a powerful representation of what humanity values and strives for. Crucially, the entire mining section, including this verse, functions as an elaborate Anticipatory Contrast. By meticulously detailing humanity's success in finding these earthly riches, the text sets up a profound comparison with the later revelation that true wisdom cannot be found through similar human effort or exploration. This contrast highlights the fundamental difference between material wealth, which is accessible through human ingenuity, and divine wisdom, which is only accessible through God's revelation.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 28:6, by highlighting humanity's remarkable ability to extract the earth's most valuable treasures, serves as a powerful theological statement about human dominion and ingenuity in the physical realm. However, its placement within the "Hymn to Wisdom" immediately elevates the discussion beyond mere material wealth. The verse implicitly challenges us to consider that while humanity can master the physical world and unearth its most precious gems and metals, this mastery does not extend to discerning ultimate truth or divine wisdom. The meticulous effort expended for sapphires and gold stands in stark contrast to humanity's inability to locate true wisdom, which is far more valuable yet infinitely more elusive without divine revelation. This sets the stage for the profound theological truth that genuine wisdom originates solely from God, not from human exploration or intellectual prowess.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 28:6, within its broader context, offers a profound and challenging lesson for contemporary life. It reminds us that while humanity possesses incredible intellect, skill, and determination to explore, extract, and create material wealth, this same ingenuity often falls short when it comes to discovering profound spiritual truths or true wisdom. The verse implicitly challenges us to reflect on where we place our greatest efforts and value. Are we diligently seeking after material riches, expending our energy and resources on accumulating what is earthly and perishable, or are we striving for the invaluable, imperishable wisdom that comes from God? The passage encourages a critical examination of our priorities, urging us to recognize that while earthly treasures may satisfy fleeting desires, true understanding and fulfillment are found only in seeking and embracing divine wisdom. It calls us to shift our focus from the depths of the earth to the heights of heaven, where true wisdom resides.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What is the significance of "sapphires" in this verse?
Answer: In Job 28:6, "sapphires" (Hebrew: çappîyr) likely refers to highly valued blue gemstones, most probably lapis lazuli, rather than the modern sapphire (blue corundum). Lapis lazuli was a prized commodity in the ancient Near East, known for its deep, celestial blue color, often flecked with gold-like pyrite. Its significance lies in its immense value, beauty, and rarity, requiring arduous mining efforts to extract it from deep within the earth. Its mention here symbolizes the pinnacle of earthly treasures that human ingenuity can unearth, setting up a contrast with the far greater, yet inaccessible by human means, value of divine wisdom.
How does this verse relate to the overall message of Job 28?
Answer: Job 28:6 is an integral part of the "Hymn to Wisdom" (Job 28), serving as a crucial element in its overarching argument. The chapter begins by meticulously detailing humanity's incredible ability to mine for precious metals and stones like gold and sapphires, showcasing the limits of human ingenuity and determination in mastering the physical world. Job 28:1-11 describes this impressive feat. Verse 6 specifically highlights the valuable discoveries. However, the chapter then shifts to a profound question: "But where shall wisdom be found?" (Job 28:12). The answer is that wisdom cannot be bought with earthly treasures, nor found through human exploration or intellect. It is a divine gift, revealed only by God (Job 28:23-28). Thus, Job 28:6, by illustrating the peak of human achievement in acquiring earthly wealth, serves as a powerful and dramatic foil, emphasizing by stark contrast humanity's utter inability to find true, divine wisdom by its own efforts.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Job 28:6 celebrates humanity's impressive ability to unearth the earth's most valuable treasures like sapphires and gold, its ultimate Christ-centered fulfillment lies in the profound truth that the true, inestimable treasure of wisdom is not found in the earth's depths but is fully embodied and revealed in Jesus Christ. The "Hymn to Wisdom" concludes that wisdom's source is God alone (Job 28:23), and the New Testament reveals that Christ is the very wisdom of God. The earthly riches described in Job 28:6, no matter how precious, pale in comparison to the spiritual riches found in Christ. As Colossians 2:2-3 declares, in Christ "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." He is the ultimate "pearl of great price" and the "hidden treasure" for which one should sell everything (Matthew 13:44-46). Unlike the elusive wisdom in Job, which humanity could not find, Christ, as the incarnate Word of God, came to reveal divine truth and wisdom, making it accessible to all who believe. He is not merely a source of wisdom, but He Himself is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, offering a treasure far more enduring and satisfying than any sapphire or dust of gold.