a stone · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
place
מְקוֹםme.kom-
H4725
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
sapphires
סַפִּ֥ירsa.Pir
H5601
a gem (perhaps used for scratching other substances) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
dust
וְעַפְרֹ֖תve.'af.Rot
H6083
dust (as powdered or gray) · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct
gold
זָהָ֣בza.Hav
H2091
gold · noun, common masculine 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
Exodus 24:10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven…
Job 28:16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Song of Solomon 5:14 His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
Isaiah 54:11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapp…
Revelation 21:19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second,…
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…
Sapphires are found in alluvial soil near rocks and embedded in gneiss. The ancients distinguished two kinds: 1. The real, of transparent blue: 2. That improperly so called, opaque, with gold spots; that is, lapis lazuli. To the latter, looking like gold dust, UMBREIT refers "dust of gold." English Version better, "The stones of the earth are, &c., and the clods of it (Vulgate) are gold"; the parallel clauses are thus neater.
John Gill on Job 28:6
The stones of it are the place of sapphires,.... In some parts of the earth its stones are a quarry of sapphires, put here for all precious stones: this is a most excellent precious stone, of a sky colour, with golden specks, and was one of the stones in the breast plate of the high priest; and by which are represented the pavement under the feet of the God of Israel, the throne of Christ, his bowels and affections for his people, the comeliness of them, and the glory of his church in the latter day, Exodus 24:10;
and it hath dust of gold; some parts of the earth abound with the dust of gold; its dust is gold, or it hath gold as plenty as dust; though some think this refers to the sapphire…
"Among its stones is sapphire; He is there, and he designates those pure souls which are necessary to form the edifice of the holy city. "And the gold for him has piled up. He is not small for him, he has real heaps of them.
The stones of it are the place of sapphire, and her clods gold. 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, and 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; 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. 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. 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. 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…
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…
Gold · Found in the earth — Found in the earth
Metals · Dug out of the earth — Dug out of the earth
Precious Stones · Dug out of the earth — Dug out of the earth
Readings, Select · NATURE’ S TESTIMONY — NATURE’ S TESTIMONY
Sapphire · A precious stone — A precious stone
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).
5 The earth-from it cometh forth bread,
And beneath it is turned up like fire.
6 The place of the sapphire are its stones,
And it containeth gold ore.
7 The way, that no bird of prey knoweth,
And the eye of the hawk hath not gazed at,
8 Which the proud beast of prey hath not trodden,
Over which the lion hath not walked.
Job 28:5 is not to be construed as Rosenm.: ad terram quod attinet, ex qua egreditur panis, quod subtus est subvertitur quasi igne; nor with Schlottm.: (they swing) in the earth, out of which comes bread, which beneath one turns about with fire; for Job 28:5 is not formed so that the Waw of ותחתּיה could be Waw apod., and ארץ cannot signify "in the interior of the earth" as l…
