Through My Bible Yr 01 – August 08

Through My Bible – August 08

Job 28 – 29 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Job 28

¹ Yes, there is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.
² Iron is taken from the ground,
and copper is smelted out of stone.

³ A miner puts an end to darkness by exploring its farthest limits.
He looks for ore in the gloom and in the deep darkness. ^[2]
4 He breaks open a mineshaft far from where settlers live,
in places no one has walked before.
Far away from other people, he dangles and sways.
⁵ The earth’s surface produces food,
but its depths are overturned as if by fire,
⁶ in places where the stones are sapphires ^[3]
and the dust is gold.
⁷ No scavenging bird knows the way there,
and the eyes of vultures ^[4] have not seen it.
⁸ The king of beasts has not set foot on it.
The lion has not prowled there.
⁹ The miner’s hand attacks the hard rock.
He overturns the roots of the mountain.
¹⁰ He cuts tunnels into the rocks,
and his eyes see every treasure.
¹¹ He dams up even the trickling water from the rivers,
and he brings light to the earth’s hidden places.

¹² But wisdom—where can it be found?
Where is the place for understanding?
¹³ Mankind does not know where it is kept.
It is not found in the land of the living.
¹⁴ The deep ocean says, “It is not in me!”
The sea says, “It is not with me!”
¹⁵ It cannot be purchased with the best gold, ^[5]
and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
¹⁶ It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir ^[6]
or with precious onyx or sapphires.
¹⁷ Gold and crystal cannot be compared to it.
The finest gold jewelry cannot be substituted for it.
¹⁸ Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning,
and the value of wisdom is greater than a bag of rubies.
¹⁹ The chrysolite of Cush cannot be compared with it.
It cannot be purchased even with pure gold.

²⁰ But what about wisdom—where does it come from?
And where is the place to find understanding?
²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of all the living.
It is concealed from the birds of the sky.
²² Destruction and Death ^[7] say,
“With our ears we have heard only a rumor about it.”

²³ God understands the way to it,
and he alone knows its place,
²⁴ because he watches the ends of the earth,
and he sees everything under the heavens.
²⁵ He determines the weight of the wind,
and he measures out the waters by volume.
²⁶ He made a decree for the rain
and established a path for the roaring thunderstorm.
²⁷ He saw wisdom and appraised its value.
He established it and also explored it.
²⁸ Then he said to mankind:
Listen carefully. The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.

² Oh how I wish I could be as I used to be
    in the months gone by,
    in the days when God used to watch over me,
³ when his lamp was shining over my head,
and I walked through darkness toward ^[9] his light,
⁴ when I was in my prime,
and the friendly guidance of God was over my tent,
⁵ when the Almighty was still with me,
and my children still surrounded me,
⁶ when my footsteps were washed in cream,
and a rock poured out streams of oil for me,
⁷ when I went out to the gatehouse ^[10] of the city,
and I took my customary seat in the public square.
⁸ The young men saw me and stepped aside.
The elders rose and remained standing in my presence.
⁹ The officials held back their words.
They placed their hands over their mouths.
¹⁰ The voices of the nobles fell silent.
Their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

¹¹ Every ear that heard what I said called me blessed.
Every eye that saw what I did testified on my behalf.
¹² Because I saved the poor when they cried for help
and the fatherless when they had no helper,
¹³ the blessing of the dying rested upon me,
and I made the heart of the widow happy.
¹⁴ I dressed myself with righteousness,
and it clothed me.
My justice clothed me like a robe and a turban.
¹⁵ I was eyes for the blind and feet for the lame.
¹⁶ I was a father for the needy.
I investigated their cases for people I did not know.
¹⁷ I shattered the fangs of the wicked,
and I snatched their prey from their teeth.
¹⁸ So I thought: “I will pass away in my own nest,
after multiplying my days like grains of sand.
¹⁹ My roots will be soaked with water,
and dew will settle on my branches at night.
²⁰ My honor will always be fresh for me,
and my bow in my hand will never wear out.”
²¹ People listened to me eagerly.
They kept silent, waiting for my advice.
²² After I spoke, they did not keep speaking. ^[11]
My words fell on them gently.
²³ They waited for me the way people wait for rain.
They opened their mouths the way people wait for spring showers.
²⁴ When I laughed with them, they did not believe it.
In the light from my face, they were never downcast.
²⁵ I chose the way for them,
and I was seated as their head,
like a king among the troops,
like one who comforts mourners.

Footnotes

1. Job 28:1 It is uncertain whether the speaker of this poem is Job or the author of the book. It seems likely that it is an intermission inserted by the author to mark the end of the three rounds of speeches.
2. Job 28:3 The Hebrew scribes regularly spell this word so that it means shadow of death. Here, however, it may be a similar word, deep darkness.
3. Job 28:6 Or lapis lazuli
4. Job 28:7 The identification of these birds is uncertain. They may be birds of prey like the falcon.
5. Job 28:15 Literally closed [gold]. The precise identification of the various types of gold and gemstones in this section is uncertain.
6. Job 28:16 Ophir is a source of gold in Arabia or Africa.
7. Job 28:22 Hebrew abaddon and maveth
8. Job 29:1 Chapter 29 begins a new section of the book, in which Job’s three friends no longer respond to him.
9. Job 29:3 Or by
10. Job 29:7 The gatehouse was the center for legal proceedings in a city.
11. Job 29:22 Or the debate was over