Verse 12
But where shall wisdom be found? - It is most evident that the terms wisdom and understanding are used here in a widely different sense from all those arts and sciences which have their relation to man in his animal and social state, and from all that reason and intellect by which man is distinguished from all other animals. Now as these terms חכמה chochmah, wisdom, and בינה binah, understanding or discernment, are often applied in the sacred writings in their common acceptations, we must have recourse to what Job says of them, to know their meaning in this place. In [Job 28:28], he says, The fear of the Lord is Wisdom, and to depart from evil is Understanding. We know that the fear of the Lord is often taken for the whole of that religious reverence and holy obedience which God prescribes to man in his word, and which man owes to his Maker. Hence the Septuagint render חכמה chochmah, wisdom, by θεοσεβια, Divine worship; and as to a departure from evil, that is necessarily implied in a religious life, but it is here properly distinguished, that no man might suppose that a right faith, and a proper performance of the rites of religious worship, is the whole of religion. No. They must not only worship God in the letter, but also in the spirit; they must not only have the form, but also the power of godliness: and this will lead them to worship God in spirit and truth, to walk in his testimonies, and abstain from every appearance of evil; hence they will be truly happy: so that wisdom is another word for happiness. Now these are things which man by study and searching could never find out; they are not of an earthly origin. The spirit of a man, human understanding, may know the things of a man - those which concern him in his animal and social state: but the Spirit of God alone knows the things of God; and therefore Wisdom - all true religion - must come by Divine revelation, which is the mode of its attainment. Wisdom finds out the thing, and understanding uses and applies the means; and then the great end is obtained.
Verse 13
Man knoweth not the price thereof - It is of infinite value; and is the only science which concerns both worlds. Without it, the wisest man is but a beast; with it, the simplest man is next to an angel.
Neither is it found in the land of the living - The world by wisdom, its wisdom, never knew God. True religion came by Divine revelation: that alone gives the true notion of God, his attributes, ways, designs, judgments, providences, etc., whence man came, what is his duty, his nature, and his end. Literature, science, arts, etc., etc., can only avail man for the present life, nor can they contribute to his true happiness, unless tempered and directed by genuine religion.
Verse 14
The depth saith, It is not in me - Men may dig into the bowels of the earth, and there find gold, silver, and precious stones; but these will not give them true happiness.
The sea saith, It is not with me - Men may explore foreign countries, and by navigation connect as it were the most distant parts of the earth, and multiply the comforts and luxuries of life; but every voyage and every enjoyment proclaim, True happiness is not here.
Verse 15
It cannot be gotten for gold - Genuine religion and true happiness are not to be acquired by earthly property. Solomon made gold and silver as plentiful as the stones in Jerusalem, and had all the delights of the sons of men, and yet he was not happy; yea, he had wisdom, was the wisest of men, but he had not the wisdom of which Job speaks here, and therefore, to him, all was vanity and vexation of spirit. If Solomon, as some suppose, was the author of this book, the sentiments expressed here are such as we might expect from this deeply experienced and wise man.
Verse 16
The gold of Ophir - Gold is five times mentioned in this and [Job 28:17] and [Job 28:19], and four of the times in different words. I shall consider them all at once.
1. סגור Segor, from סגר sagar, to shut up. Gold. in the mine, or shut up in the ore; native gold washed by the streams out of the mountains, etc.; unwrought gold. [Job 28:16]
2. כתם Kethem, from כתם catham, to sign or stamp: gold made current by being coined, or stamped with its weight or value; what we would call standard or sterling gold. [Job 28:17]
3. זהב Zahab, from זהב zahab, to be Lear, bright, or resplendent: the untarnishing metal; the only metal that always keeps its lustre. But probably here it means gold chased, or that in which precious stones are set; burnished gold.
4. פז Paz, from פז paz, to consolidate, joined here with כלי keley, vessels, ornaments, instruments, etc.: hammered or wrought gold; gold in the finest forms, and most elegant utensils. This metal is at once the brightest, most solid, and most precious, of all the metals yet discovered, of which we have no less than forty in our catalogues. In these verses there are also seven kinds of precious stones, etc., mentioned: onyx, sapphire, crystal, coral, pearls, rubies, and topaz.
These I shall also consider in the order of their occurrence. [Job 28:16]
1. שהם shoham, the Onyx, from ονυξ, a man's nail, hoof of a horse, because in color it resembles both. This stone is a species of chalcedony; and consists of alternate layers of white and brown chalcedony, under which it generally ranges. In the Vulgate it is called sardonyx, compounded of sard and onyx. Sard is also a variety of chalcedony, of a deep reddish-brown color, of which, and alternate layers of milk-white chalcedony, the sardonyx consists. A most beautiful block of this mineral sardonyx, from Iceland, now lies before me.
2. ספיר sappir, the Sapphire stone, From ספר saphar, to count, number; probably from the number of golden spots with which it is said the sapphire of the ancients abounded. Pliny says, Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvii., cap. 8: Sapphirus aureis punctis collucet: coeruleae et sapphiri, raraque cum purpura: optimae apud Medos, nusquam tame perlucidae. "The sapphire glitters with golden spots. Sapphires are sometimes of an azure, never of a purple color. Those of Media are the best, but there are none transparent." This may mean the blood stones; but see below. What we call the sapphire is a variety of the perfect corundum; it is in hardness inferior only to the diamond. It is of several colors, and from them it has obtained several names.
1. The transparent or translucent is called the white sapphire.
2. The blue is called the oriental sapphire.
3. The violet blue, the oriental amethyst.
4. The yellow, the oriental topaz.
5. The green, the oriental emerald.
6. That with pearly reflections, the opalescent sapphire.
7. When transparent, with a pale, reddish, or bluish reflection, it is called the girasol sapphire.
8. A variety which, when polished, shows a silvered star of six rays in a direction perpendicular to the axis, is called asteria.
When the meaning of the Hebrew word is collated with the description given by Pliny, it must be evident that a spotted opaque stone is meant, and consequently not what is now known by the name sapphire. I conjecture, therefore, that lapis lazuli, which is of a blue color, with golden-like spots, formed by pyrites of iron, must be intended.
The lapis lazuli is that from which the beautiful and unfading color called ultramarine is obtained. [Job 28:17]
3. זכוכית zechuchith, Crystal, or glass, from זכה zachah, to be pure, clear, transparent. Crystal or crystal of quartz is a six-sided prism, terminated by six-sided pyramids. It belongs to the siliceous class of minerals: it is exceedingly clear and brilliant, insomuch that this property of it has become proverbial, as clear as crystal. [Job 28:18]
4. ראמות ramoth, Coral, from ראם raam, to be exalted or elevated; probably from this remarkable property of coral, "it always grows from the tops of marine rocky caverns with the head downwards." Red coral is found in the Mediterranean, about the isles of Majorca and Minorca, on the African coast, and in the Ethiopic ocean.
5. גביש gabish, Pearls, from גבש gabash, in Arabic, to be smooth, to shave off the hair; and hence גביש gabish, the pearl, the smooth round substance; and also hail or hailstones, because of their resemblance to pearls. The pearl is the production of a shell-fish of the oyster kind, found chiefly in the East Indies, and called berberi; but pearls are occasionally found in the common oyster, as I have myself observed, and in the muscle also. They are of a brilliant sparkling white, perfectly round in general, and formed of coats in the manner of an onion. Out of one oyster I once took six pearls. When large, fine, and without spots, they are valuable. I have seen one that formed the whole body of a Hindoo idol, Creeshna, more than an inch in length, and valued at 300 guineas.
6. פנינים peninim, Rubies, from פנה panah, he turned, looked, beheld. The oriental ruby is blood-red, rose-red, or with a tinge of violet. It has occasionally a mixture of blue, and is generally in the form of six-sided prisms. It is a species of the sapphire, and is sometimes chatoyant in its appearance, i.e., has a curious kind of reflection, similar to the cat's eye: and as this is particularly striking, and changes as you turn the stone, hence probably the name peninim, which you derive from פנה panah, to turn, look, behold, etc. But some learned men are of opinion that the magnet or loadstone is meant, and it is thus called because of the remarkable property it has of turning north and south. And this notion is rendered the more likely, because it agrees with another word in this verse, expressive of a different property of the magnet, viz., its attractive influence: for the Hebrew words משך חכמה מפנינים meshech chochmah mippeninim, which we render, The price of wisdom is above rubies, is literally, The Attraction of wisdom is beyond the peninim, the loadstone; for all the gold, silver, and precious stones, have strong influence on the human heart, attracting all its passions strongly; yet the attraction of wisdom - that which insures a man's happiness in both worlds - is more powerful and influential, when understood, than all of these, and even than the loadstone, for that can only attract iron; but, through desire of the other, a man, having separated himself from all those earthly entanglements, seeketh and intermeddleth with All Wisdom. The attractive property of the loadstone must have been observed from its first discovery; and there is every reason to believe that the magnet and its virtues were known in the East long before they were discovered in Europe.
7. פטדה pitdah, the Topaz. This word occurs only in [Exo 28:17]; [Exo 39:10]; [Eze 28:13], and in the present place; in all of which, except that of Ezekiel, where the Septuagint is all confusion, the Septuagint and Vulgate render the word always τοπαζιον, topazius, the Topaz. This stone is generally found in a prismatic form, sometimes limpid and nearly transparent, or of various shades of yellow, green, blue, lilac, and red. I have thus given the best account I can of the stones here mentioned, allowing that they answer to the names by which we translate them. But on this point there is great uncertainty, as I have already had occasion to observe in other parts of this work. Beasts, birds, plants, metals, precious stones, unguents, different kinds of grain, etc., are certainly mentioned in the sacred writings; but whether we know what the different Hebrew terms signify, is more than we can certainly affirm. Of some there is little room to doubt; of others conjecture must in the present state of our knowledge, supply the place of certainty. See Philip's Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy; an accurate work, which I feel pleasure in recommending to all students in the science.
Verse 19
The topaz of Ethiopia - The country called Cush, which we call Ethiopia, is supposed to be that which extends from the eastern coast of the Red Sea, and stretches towards Lower Egypt. Diodorus Siculus says that the topaz was found in great abundance, as his description intimates, in an island in the Red Sea called Ophiodes, or the isle of serpents, Hist. lib. iii., p. 121. His account is curious, but I greatly doubt its correctness; it seems too much in the form of a legend: yet the reader may consult the place. See also Clarke on [Job 28:16] (note).
Verse 20
Whence then cometh wisdom? - Nearly the same words as in [Job 28:12] (note), where see the note.
Verse 22
Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof - אבדון ומות Abaddon vamaveth, the destroyer, and his offspring death. This is the very name that is given to the devil in Greek letters Αβαδδων, [Rev 9:11], and is rendered by the Greek word Απολλυων, Apollyon, a word exactly of the same meaning. No wonder death and the devil are brought in here as saying they had heard the fame of wisdom, seeing [Job 28:28] defines it to be the fear of the Lord, and a departure from evil; things point blank contrary to the interests of Satan, and the extension of the empire of death.
Verse 23
God understandeth the way thereof - It can only be taught by a revelation from himself. Instead of הבין hebin, understandeth, six MSS. have הכין hechin, disposed or established. This reading is also supported by the Septuagint; Ὁ Θεος ευ συνεστησεν αυτης ὁδον, "God hath well established her way:" falsely rendered bene cognovit, hath well known, in the Latin version of the Septuagint in the London Polyglot; but bene constituit, hath well established, in the Complutensian, Antwerp, and Paris Polyglots.
Verse 24
For he looketh to the ends of the earth - His knowledge is unlimited, and his power infinite.
Verse 25
To make the weight for the winds - God has given an atmosphere to the earth, which, possessing a certain degree of gravity perfectly suited to the necessities of all animals, plants, vegetables, and fluids, is the cause in his hand of preserving animal and vegetative life through the creation; for by it the blood circulates in the veins of animals, and the juices in the tubes of vegetables. Without this pressure of the atmosphere, there could be no respiration; and the elasticity of the particles of air included in animal and vegetable bodies, without this superincumbent pressure, would rupture the vessels in which they are contained, and destroy both kinds of life. So exactly is this weight of the winds or atmospheric air proportioned to the necessities of the globe, that we find it in the mean neither too light to prevent the undue expansion of animal and vegetable tubes, nor too heavy to compress them so as to prevent due circulation. See at the end of the chapter, [Job 28:28] (note).