to wrap firmly (especially a turban · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
floods
נְהָר֣וֹתne.ha.Rot
H5104
a stream (including the sea · noun, common feminine plural absolute
overflowing
מִ֭בְּכִיMi.be.khi
H1065
a weeping · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
hid
וְ֝תַעֲלֻמָ֗הּve.ta.'a.lu.Mah
H8587
a secret · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
forth
יֹ֣צִאYo.tzi'
H3318
to go (causatively · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
light
אֽוֹר'or
H216
illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every sense · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 45:2-3 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make mani…
Job 26:8 He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.
Isaiah 37:25 I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.
Isaiah 44:27 That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 28:1-11
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 h…
floods--"He restrains the streams from weeping"; a poetical expression for the trickling subterranean rills, which impede him; answering to the first clause of Job 28:10; so also the two latter clauses in each verse correspond.
John Gill on Job 28:11
He bindeth the floods from overflowing,.... As the miner finds ways and means of cutting through rocks, and draining and carrying off the waters in his mine; so he makes use of other methods of restraining and keeping back the waters from coming into and overflowing his works, and even "from weeping" (m), as in the original text; he binds them up so firmly, and stops every avenue and passage so close, that the waters cannot so much as ooze, or distil and drop as a tear from the eye:
and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light; the several metals and minerals, gems and precious stones, that lay hid in the bosom of the earth, are fetched out, and brought to light by the diligence and…
9 He layeth his hand upon the pebbles;
He turneth up the mountains from the root.
10 He cutteth canals through the rocks;
And his eye seeth all kinds of precious things.
11 That they may not leak, he dammeth up rivers;
And that which is hidden he bringeth to light.
12 But wisdom, whence is it obtained?
And where is the place of understanding?
Beneath, whither no other being of the upper world penetrates, man puts his hand upon the quartz or rock. חלּמישׁ (perhaps from חלם, to be strong, firm: Arabic, with the reduplication resolved, chalnubûs, like עכּבישׁ, Arab. ‛ancabûth, vid., Jesurun, p. 229) signifies here the quartz, and in general the hard stone; שׁלח יד בּ something like our "to ta…
The Church Fathers
The depths also of the floods He hath searched, and the hidden things He hath brought to light. And because the teachers of the New Testament are brought to this, that even the hidden darkness of allegories in the Old Testament they search out, it is rightly added; The depths also of the floods He hath searched, and the hidden things He hath brought to light. For what else are here called 'floods' but the sayings of the ancient Fathers. For who might be able to estimate how vehement a flood, whilst he was founding the Law, burst forth from the very breast of Moses? how vehement a flood gushed from the heart of David? what mighty streams of floods flowed out from the lips of Solomon and all the Prophets? Now of these 'floods' Judaea held the shew, when in keeping the surface of the letter she knew not the depths thereof. But we, who, on the Lord coming, seek therein interior spiritual things, search their 'depths.' And this thing the Lord is Himself said to do, because by Himself vouchsafing it we are enabled to do it; and so by us, who follow not the letter which killeth, but the spirit which maketh alive, the Lord 'searcheth the depths of the floods, and bringeth the hidden things into light,' because the statements of the Law, which the too dark history makes obscure, a spiritual interpretation now lights up. And hence 'Truth' when speaking in parables in the Gospel bade the Disciples, saying, What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye on the house tops. For the plainly spoken words of these interpreting have made the sentences of the ancient Fathers henceforth clear to us. Hence the Prophet Isaiah viewing the words plain by the interpretation of Holy Church, not obscured by the darkness of allegories, exclaimed, saying, The place of rivers, the broadest and open streams. For the sayings of the Old Testament were as narrow and close streams, which bound up the sentences of their lore in the darkest gathering together. But on the other hand the teaching of Holy Church are 'streams both broad and open,' because her declarations are at once many in number to those that find them, and plain to those that seek. Therefore he says, The depths of the floods he hath searched, and the hidden things he hath brought to light. Because when He poured into His interpreters the spirit of understanding, He set open the…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Brass — Which is an alloy of copper and zinc, was not known till the thirteenth century. What is designated by this word in Scripture is properly copper (Deut. 8:9). It was used for fetters (Judg. 16:21; 2…
Mine — The process of mining is described in Job 28:1-11. Moses speaks of the mineral wealth of Palestine (Deut. 8:9). Job 28:4 is rightly thus rendered in the Revised Version, “He breaketh open a shaft…
Mines, Mining — A highly-poetical description given by the author of the book of Job of the operations of mining as known in his day is the only record of the kind which we inherit from the ancient Hebrews. (Job…
Civil Engineering · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Continents · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Geology · 22:16; — 22:16;
Readings, Select · NATURE’ S TESTIMONY — NATURE’ S TESTIMONY
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Miners melted rock by burning a fire in a mine for days or even weeks to melt out the ore. Some alternated fire with cold water to split the rocks.
Rashi on Job 28:11
He bound up the depths of the rivers Heb. מבכי. In the Creation of the world, when the lower waters wept (בכו). the depths Heb. מבכי, like (below 38:16), “the depths of (נבכי) the sea.”
bound up Heb. חבש, like (Gen. 22:3), “and saddled (ויחבש) his donkey.” I did not hear this. [Other editions: Because of the weeping etc. Because of the weeping of Israel, who were weeping, saying, “What will we drink,” He bound up and fixed for them water from the rock. (Lev. 8:13),”And he fixed hats (ויחבש) for them,” is translated into Aramaic as ואתקין.]
and [from] Taalumah He brings out light There is a window in the firmament, named Taalumah, from which the sun develops in its orbit [in Pirke d’Rabbi E…
