TRV
Translation
Complete Jewish Bible
the proud beasts have never set foot on it, no lion has ever passed over it.
American Standard Version
The proud beasts have not trodden it, Nor hath the fierce lion passed thereby.
World English Bible Messianic
The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
Young's Literal Translation
Nor trodden it have the sons of pride, Not passed over it hath the fierce lion.
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In the KJVVerse 13,513 of 31,102
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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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Julian of EclanumAD 455
EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK OF JOB 28:7-8
Even though they sail in the air and reach paths close to heaven, they cannot approach those through which knowledge is attained. “That path no bird knows.” The context of the exposition seems to demand that effects and duties follow the knowledge that he has set out to describe and that he assigns parts of it, so that people, with its guidance, may reach in the hope of their search those places that had previously been far removed from the access of mortals. And, according to his custom, he exaggeratedly says huge deserts are reached by people that are far removed from birds and other beasts while they are trodden by human foot. “The sons of the merchants have not trodden it.” While he sets out to show that people penetrate the deserts, how can he now deny that wildernesses are trodden by the feet of merchants? Therefore, it seems that here he has shown the scarceness of the travelers and has denied the frequency of the merchants. “The lioness has not passed over it.” No bird or reptile or quadruped ever knew those things that reason, the examiner and researcher of hidden things, has found.
Gregory the DialogistAD 604
55. In all the Latin copies we find the word ‘Instructors’ [Institutores] put down, but in the Greek we find ‘traders,’ [negotiatores] whereby it may be inferred that in this passage the several copyists from being ignorant put ‘instructors’ (‘institutors’) instead of ‘institores’ (‘ dealers’). For we call traders ‘institores’ on this account, that they are ‘instant in plying work.’ But both the one phrase and the other, though they disagree in utterance, yet are not at variance in meaning, because all those who instruct the practice of the faithful, carryon a spiritual dealing, that while they supply preaching to their hearers, they should receive back from them faith and right works; as where it is written touching Holy Church, She maketh fine linen, and selleth it. Concerning whom it is likewise said a little after in that place, She perceiveth that her trading is good. [Prov. 31, 24] Who in this place are called ‘instructors’ but the holy Prophets, who busied themselves by prophesying to instruct the ways of the Synagogue unto faith? ‘Sons’ of whom, assuredly, the holy Apostles are styled, who that they should believe God Man were begotten to the same faith by the preaching of those. Concerning whom it is said to the Church by the Psalmist; Instead of thy fathers are born to thee children, whom thou mayest make princes over all the earth. [Ps. 45, 16] But because the Apostles being thrust off went out from the borders of the Synagogue, it is lightly said now, The children of the dealers have not trodden it. Since the ‘children of the dealers’ would have ‘trodden it,’ if the holy Preachers had borne down the badness of the Synagogue with the heel of goodness. But if those same ‘dealers’ we take for the Preachers of Holy Church, then the ‘children’ of the dealers, nothing hinders us taking for the Shepherds and Teachers who followed the way of the Apostles. Which did not ‘tread’ the Synagogue, because whilst their fathers, i.e. the Apostles, were thrust off by that Synagogue, they themselves too ceased from the calling of her.
56. Which same Synagogue’ the lioness passed not by,’ because Holy Church, being devoted to the assembling together of the Gentiles, never any longer employed itself upon that people of Judaea. Now the Church is lightly called’ a lioness,’ in that persons living amiss in bad habits, it kills with the mouth of holy preaching. Hence to the first Shepherd himself it is said as to the mouth of this lioness; slay and eat. [Acts 10, 13] For what is ‘slain’ is killed out of life, whilst that which is eaten is changed into the body of the person eating. Accordingly it is said, ‘Slay and eat;’ i.e. ‘Kill those to the sin wherein they are living, and convert them from themselves into thine own members.’ And because this Church is the body of the Lord, the Lord likewise Himself by the voice of Jacob is called’ a lion’ in respect of Himself, a ‘lioness’ by the body, when it is said to him under the likeness of Judah, To the prey, my son, art thou gone up. Thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness. Who shall rouse him up? [Gen. 49, 9] Accordingly this lioness it is never said’ passed not’ Judaea, but’ passed not through.’ For upon the Apostles preaching, in the first instance three thousand out of her, and afterwards five thousand, believed. And so the Church’ passed by’ the way of the Synagogue, but’ passed not through,’ because a few from out of her it carried off to faith, but yet that faithless people it did not utterly make extinct to misbelief. But, what we have already often said, being cast off by the infidelity of the Jews it turned away to the calling of the Gentiles.
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 28:8 is a profound poetic declaration embedded within a magnificent wisdom interlude in the Book of Job. It marvels at humanity's astonishing ingenuity and daring in its relentless quest for precious minerals. This verse vividly illustrates the extreme depths and perilous nature of the mining paths carved out by humans, asserting that even the most formidable wild animals, specifically young and mature lions, instinctively avoid these dangerous, man-made subterranean passages. By highlighting this unprecedented human venture, the verse underscores the extraordinary lengths to which humanity will go in its pursuit of earthly treasures, simultaneously setting a stark contrast with the far greater, yet elusive, wisdom of God that remains entirely beyond human reach.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 28:8 employs several potent literary devices to achieve its dramatic effect. The most prominent is Hyperbole, an exaggeration used for emphasis. By stating that even the most powerful and fearless creatures of the wild—lions, both young and mature—have not ventured into these mining paths, the text dramatically emphasizes the extraordinary depths and dangers to which humans descend in their pursuit of wealth. This exaggeration highlights the audacity and unique nature of human ingenuity. Symbolism is also at play, with the lion serving as a powerful symbol of strength, ferocity, and the natural order. Their absence from these paths symbolically underscores how far humanity has ventured beyond the natural, into realms that defy the instincts of even the wildest beasts. Furthermore, the verse utilizes Negative Parallelism, repeating the idea of avoidance ("have not trodden it," "nor passed by it") with two distinct but related subjects ("lion's whelps," "fierce lion"). This reinforces the absolute nature of the lions' absence and intensifies the sense of the mines' inaccessibility and peril.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 28:8, within its broader context, serves as a profound theological statement about human limitation and divine sovereignty. It highlights humanity's extraordinary capacity for ingenuity and perseverance in the physical realm, yet simultaneously points to our inherent inability to discover true wisdom through our own efforts. The verse implicitly raises the question: if we can conquer the earth's deepest, most dangerous places for material gain, why can we not find the most valuable treasure of all—wisdom? Theologically, this directs us away from self-reliance and toward a recognition that ultimate wisdom is not a commodity to be mined or discovered by human intellect, but a divine attribute and a gift from God. It underscores that God's ways and knowledge are fundamentally distinct from and superior to human understanding, urging humility in our pursuit of knowledge and a reliance on divine revelation for true insight into life's deepest mysteries.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 28:8 challenges us to reflect on the nature of our pursuits and the source of our wisdom. In a world that often prioritizes material acquisition, technological advancement, and intellectual prowess, this verse serves as a powerful reminder of our inherent limitations. We may achieve remarkable feats in science, engineering, and exploration, delving into the mysteries of the universe or the depths of the earth. Yet, the most profound wisdom—the understanding of life's purpose, moral truth, and spiritual reality—remains elusive to human effort alone. This verse calls us to humility, urging us to recognize that true wisdom is not something we can excavate or invent, but something that must be received from its ultimate, divine source. It prompts us to examine what "treasures" we are truly seeking and where we are directing our deepest explorations, inviting us to shift our focus from earthly gains to the pursuit of divine wisdom, which alone can illuminate our path and provide lasting meaning.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does Job 28:8 specifically mention lions, and what is the significance of their absence?
Answer: Job 28:8 specifically mentions lions because they were (and still are) universally recognized as symbols of immense strength, ferocity, and the apex of the natural predatory world in the ancient Near East. Their presence signified danger and untamed wilderness. The significance of their absence from the mining paths is twofold: First, it dramatically emphasizes the extreme and unnatural danger of these human-made tunnels. If even the most fearless and powerful creatures of the wild instinctively avoid these places, it underscores just how perilous and alien they are to the natural order. Second, it highlights the extraordinary audacity and ingenuity of human beings. Unlike animals who are bound by instinct and natural limits, humans, in their quest for wealth, are willing to venture into realms that even the fiercest predators dare not tread. This sets up the profound contrast with the later declaration that true wisdom is even more inaccessible than these mines, known only to God.
How does Job 28:8 contribute to the overall message of the Book of Job?
Answer: Job 28:8, as part of the pivotal wisdom poem in Job 28, is crucial to the overall message of the Book of Job by shifting the focus from Job's suffering and the debate over divine justice to the ultimate source of wisdom. Throughout the dialogues, Job and his friends grapple with profound questions about God's ways, the nature of righteousness, and the cause of suffering, but they fail to find satisfactory answers. Verse 8, by illustrating humanity's incredible capacity to uncover hidden earthly treasures, sets up a powerful rhetorical question: if humans can achieve such feats, why can they not find wisdom? This leads to the chapter's conclusion that true wisdom is not found in human endeavors or intellectual pursuits but resides solely with God. Thus, Job 28:8 helps to establish God's exclusive knowledge and sovereignty as the ultimate answer to life's deepest mysteries, preparing the reader for God's climactic speeches from the whirlwind in Job 38.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job 28:8, with its portrayal of humanity's audacious quest for earthly treasures in places inaccessible to even the fiercest lions, ultimately points to a greater, divine wisdom that remains hidden from human discovery. This profound truth finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. While humanity can delve into the earth's deepest recesses for material wealth, true wisdom—the knowledge of God, the meaning of life, and the path to salvation—is not found in any earthly mine or through human ingenuity. Instead, it is fully embodied and revealed in Christ. The Apostle Paul declares that Christ is "the wisdom of God" and that "in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge". What was inaccessible to the "lion's whelps" and the "fierce lion," and indeed to all human striving, has been made manifest in the person of Jesus. He is the one who "has revealed the Father" and the one who is "the way, the truth, and the life" to God's wisdom. Thus, the ultimate "treasure" is not found in the earth's dark caverns, but in the light of Christ, who is God's wisdom made flesh, freely offered to all who seek Him.