Job 28:1

XXVIII. (1) Surely there is a vein for the silver.—In this chapter Job draws out a magnificent contrast between human skill and ingenuity and Divine wisdom. The difficulty to the ordinary reader is in not perceiving that the person spoken of in Job 28:3 is man, and not God. Man possesses and exercises this mastery over nature, but yet is ignorant of wisdom unless God bestows it on him. That Job should say this is but natural, after his painful experience of the want of wisdom in his friends.

Job 28:1 . Surely, &c. — Job, having confuted his three friends on their own principles, in the last two and some of the preceding chapters, here falls into a kind of soliloquy on the difficulty of obtaining true wisdom. His friends had laid claim to it from their great age, and from their knowledge of ancient traditions: see Job 5:27 , and Job 8:8-9 , and Job 15:9-10 , and Job 20:4 ; but he had shown them of how little importance or signification their conclusions were. Where, then, it became the question, is wisdom to be found? To answer this question is the intent of Job’s discourse in this chapter, which is evidently an inquiry after wisdom; not the unsearchable depths of God’s counsels, but wisdom in general; or, rather, the wisdom proper to man: see Job 28:28 . Job here determines, that even that wisdom is not attainable by the human capacity and industry without a revelation from God.

The several arts of discovering and purifying silver, of refining gold, making iron and brass from the ore, the art of mining itself, the secrets of husbandry, are all within the reach of human ability and diligence: but to comprehend the ways of Divine Providence, and understand the reasons of God’s dispensations toward mankind, whether the righteous or the wicked, is above man’s capacity, and can only be known so far as God is pleased to reveal them: that God, however, has furnished man with a sufficient rule to walk by, and that to attend to it is his highest wisdom, and, indeed, the only way to be truly wise; all other speculations and attempts to attain true wisdom being vain and fruitless. There is a vein for silver, &c. — Thus the chapter begins with a fine description of the indefatigable industry and ardour of mankind in searching after things which contribute either to the use or ornament of life; how they dig into the bowels of the earth for metals, gold, silver, iron, brass; and that the industry or avarice of man is without bounds: he searcheth into the land of darkness itself for hidden treasures. The word rendered vein, מוצא , mutza, signifies properly a going forth; there is a going forth for the silver: that is, “man hath found where silver may be dug out of the earth.” And a place for gold where they fine it — Or, as it is in the margin, rather, for gold which they fine.

1 . surely there is ] Rather, for there is. The connexion, however, with the preceding is difficult to perceive (see at the end of the chapter). there is a vein ] lit. an issue or source . The emphasis falls on is —there is a place from which silver comes forth, it has a source out of which it may be gotten. where they fine it ] Rather, which they (men) refine . The most precious ores, both silver and gold, have a place where they may be found; however distant and dark and deep in the earth their place be, such a place is known, men penetrate to it, and bring them forth. The antithesis is presented in Job 28:12 , But whence shall Wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? It hath no place known to man.

Verses 1-28. - The connection of this chapter with the preceding is somewhat obscure. Probably we are to regard Job as led to see, even while he is justifying God's ways with sinners ( Job 27:8-23 ), how many and how great are the difficulties in the way of forming a single consistent theory of the Divine action, which shall be applicable to all cases. Hence he comes to the conclusion that God is incomprehensible by man and inscrutable; and that it is only given to man to know him sufficiently for his practical guidance. To impress this on his hearers is his main object (vers. 12-28); and, to impress it the more, he introduces it by a sharp contrast. Wonderful as is man's cleverness and ingenuity in respect of earthly things and physical phenomena (vers. 1-11), with respect to heavenly things and the spiritual world - wherewith true wisdom is concerned - he knows next to nothing. All that he knows is just enough to guide his conduct aright (ver. 28). Verse 1. - Surely there is a vein for the silver ; literally, an issue for silver? i.e. a place or places whence it is drawn forth from the earth. The silver-mines of Spain were very early worked by the Phoenicians, and produced the metal in great abundance (see the author's 'History of Phoenicia,' p. 314). But Asia itself was probably the source whence silver was obtained in primitive times. And a place for gold where they fine it; or, fuse it.

Gold is very widely spread over the earth's surface, and in ancient times was especially abundant in Arabia (Diod. Sic.. 2:1; 3:42; Strabo, 16:4. § 18; Pit,y, 'Hist. Nat.,' 6:32, etc.); so that Job might easily have been acquainted with the processes of fusing and refining it. Two processes of refining are mentioned by Diodorus as practised by the Egyptians (3:11). Job 28:1

CHAPTER 28 Job 28:1-28. Job's Speech Continued. In the twenty-seventh chapter Job had tacitly admitted that the statement of the friends was often true, that God vindicated His justice by punishing the wicked here; but still the affliction of the godly remained unexplained. Man has, by skill, brought the precious metals from their concealment. But the Divine Wisdom, which governs human affairs, he cannot similarly discover (Job 28:12, &c.). However, the image from the same metals (Job 23:10) implies Job has made some way towards solving the riddle of his life; namely, that affliction is to him as the refining fire is to gold. 1. vein—a mine, from which it goes forth, Hebrew, "is dug." place for gold—a place where gold may be found, which men refine. Not as English Version, "A place—where," (Mal 3:3). Contrasted with gold found in the bed and sand of rivers, which does not need refining; as the gold dug from a mine does. Golden ornaments have been found in Egypt, of the times of Joseph.The power and wisdom of God in his works of nature, Job 28:1-11. A knowledge and wisdom answering this is not found in man, nor to be bought or acquired, Job 28:12-21. Death and destruction make their report of it, Job 28:22. It is only in God, Job 28:23-27. Man’s wisdom is to fear God, Job 28:28. There is a vein for the silver; where it is hid by God, and found and fetched out by the art and industry of man.

The connexion of this chapter with the former is difficult, and diversly apprehended; but this may seem to be the fairest account of it: Job having in the last chapter discoursed of God’s various providences and carriages towards wicked men, and showed that God doth sometimes for a season give them wealth and prosperity, but afterwards calls them to a sad account, and punisheth them severely for their abuse of his mercies; and having formerly showed that God doth sometimes prosper the wicked all their days, so as they live and die without any visible token of God’s displeasure against them, when, on the contrary, good men are exercised with many and grievous calamities; and perceiving that his friends were, as men in all ages have been, scandalized at these methods of Divine Providence, and denied the thing, because they could not understand the reason of such unequal dispensations: in this chapter he declares that this is one of the depths and secrets of Divine Wisdom, not discoverable by any mortal man in this world; and that although men had some degree of wisdom whereby they could dig deep, and search out many hidden things, as the veins of silver, gold, &c., yet this was a wisdom of a higher nature, and out of man’s reach.