the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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King James Version
Job 28:4
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They sink a mine shaft into the earth far from where anyone lives. They descend on ropes, swinging back and forth.
He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn; they are forgotten of the foot that passeth by; they hang afar from men, they swing to and fro.
He breaks open a shaft away from where men sojourn; They are forgotten of the foot; They hang far from common man, they swing to and fro.
Miners dig a tunnel far from where people live, where no one has ever walked; they work far from people, swinging and swaying from ropes.
Far from where people live he sinks a shaft, in places travelers have long forgotten, far from other people he dangles and sways.
The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant: [even the waters] forgotten by the foot: they are dried up, they have gone away from men.
He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
"He breaks open (mine) shafts far away from where people live, [In places] forgotten by the [human] foot; They dangle [in the mines] and hang away from men.
He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives; they are forgotten by travelers; they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro.
Also a stronde departith a stoon of derknesse, and the schadewe of deth, fro the puple goynge in pilgrymage; it departith tho hillis, whiche the foot of a nedi man foryat, and hillis with out weie.
Far from human habitation he cuts a shaft in places forgotten by the foot of man. Far from men he dangles and sways.
They dig tunnels in distant, unknown places, where they dangle by ropes.
He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn; They are forgotten of the foot; They hang afar from men, they swing to and fro.
He makes a deep mine far away from those living in the light of day; when they go about on the earth, they have no knowledge of those who are under them, who are hanging far from men, twisting from side to side on a cord.
There where no one lives, they break open a shaft; the feet passing over are oblivious to them; far from people, suspended in space, they swing to and fro.
He openeth a shaft far from the inhabitants [of the earth]: forgotten of the foot, they hang suspended; away below men they hover.
Far from where people live, they dig deep into the ground, down where no one else has been before. There they work all alone, hanging from ropes.
He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn; they are forgotten of the foot that passeth by; they hang afar from men, they swing to and fro.
The floud breaketh out from the inhabitant; euen the waters forgotten of the foote: they are dried vp, they are gone away from men.
Men break open deep holes far from where people live, forgotten by travelers. In the holes they hang and move from side to side far from men.
They open shafts in a valley away from human habitation; they are forgotten by travelers, they sway suspended, remote from people.
The flood breaketh out against the inhabitant, and the waters forgotten of the foote, being higher then man, are gone away.
They have inherited a ruined mine from an alien people; they are gone astray from the right path and their number has diminished from among men.
Far from where anyone lives Or human feet ever travel, They dig the shafts of mines. There they work in loneliness, Clinging to ropes in the pits.
He hath sunken a shaft, away from the inhabitants; Places forsaken by the foot, they hang down, away from men, sway to and fro;
The flood divideth from the people that are on their journey, those whom the food of the needy man hath forgotten, and who cannot be come at.
They open shafts in a valley away from where men live; they are forgotten by travelers, they hang afar from men, they swing to and fro.
He causeth the fluddes to breake out against the inhabitant, and the waters forgotten of the foote, beyng hygher then man, are gone away.
There is a cutting off the torrent by reason of dust: so they that forget the right way are weakened; they are removed from among men.
He cuts a shaft far from human habitation,in places unknown to those who walk above ground.Suspended far away from people,the miners swing back and forth.
He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
He breaks open a mine shaft away from where people dwell; those who are forgotten by travelers, they dangle, they sway far away from human beings.
He opens a shaft far from the visitor; they are forgotten by man's foot; they hang far from men; they swing to and fro.
A stream hath broken out from a sojourner, Those forgotten of the foot, They were low, from man they wandered.
wt the ryuer of water parteth he a sunder the straunge people, yt knoweth no good neghbourheade: soch as are rude, vnmanerly & boysteous.
"He sinks a shaft away from inhabited areas, Forgotten by the foot; They hang and swing, away from people.
He breaks open a shaft away from people; In places forgotten by feet They hang far away from men; They swing to and fro.
"He sinks a shaft far from habitation, Forgotten by the foot; They hang and swing to and fro far from men.
He sinks a shaft far from habitation,Forgotten by the foot;They hang and swing to and fro far from men.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Reciprocal: Genesis 7:11 - all
Cross-References
And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord , who appeared unto him.
And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughers of Canaan;
And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;
And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;
Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
Gill's Notes on the Bible
The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant,.... Or, "so that there is no inhabitant" z; of the mine, as the miner may be said to be, who lives there continually; and, when a flood of water arises, which is an usual thing in mines, he is obliged to flee, and make haste to save his life:
[even the waters] forgotten of the foot; such as never any foot of man touched, or was acquainted with, being subterraneous water, and never seen with the eye of man before, and who before knew not there were such floods underground a. A like figurative expression in
Psalms 137:5;
they are dried up, they are gone away from men; though such a flood of waters rise apace, and flow in with great force, and threaten the miners' lives, and the ruin of their works; yet they are not discouraged, but by means of engines, pumps, and buckets, and such like things, draw up the waters, and clear the mines of them; and they are gone from the workmen, who return to their work again, and go on with their mining: and so sometimes spiritual miners are interrupted by a flood of Satan's temptations, the world's persecutions, and various afflictions; but, by the assistance of the spirit and grace of God, whereby a standard is lifted up against them, they get clear of them, and receive no hurt by them, but go on cheerfully in the work of the Lord, Isaiah 59:19.
z מעם גר "qui accolas non fert", Tigurine version; "dimisso accola", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "ut non sit accola", Mercerus. a Vid. Senecae Nat. Quaest. l. 5. c. 15.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant - It would be difficult to tell what idea our translators affixed to this sentence, though it seems to be a literal version of the Hebrew. There has been a great variety of rendering given to the passage. Noyes translates it:
“From the place where they dwell they open a shaft,
Unsupported by the feet,
They are suspended, they swing away from men.”
Herder:
“A flood goeth out from the realm of oblivion,
They draw it up from the foot of the mountain,
They remove it away from men.”
According to this, the meaning, Herder says, would be, that “the dwelling of the forgotten would be the kingdom of the dead, and at greater depth than the deepest mines have reached. Streams break forth from the river of eternal oblivion beneath, and yet are overcome by the miners, pumped dry, and turned out of the way. “Yet I confess,” says he, “the passage remains obscure to my mind.” Coverdale renders it, “With the river of water parteth he asunder the strange people, that knoweth no good neighborhood; such as are rude, unmannerly, and boisterous.” The Septuagint renders it, “The channels of brooks are choked up with sand; when to such as know not the right way strength is unavailing, and they are removed from among men.” The difficulty of interpreting the passage has been felt by every expositor to be great; and there are scarcely two expositions alike. There can be no doubt that Job refers to mining operations, and the whole passage should be explained with reference to such works. But the obscurity may possibly arise from the fact that mining operations were then conducted in a manner different from what they are now, and the allusion may be to some custom which was then well understood, but of which we now know nothing. A plausible interpretation, at least, has been furnished by Gesenius, and one which seems to me to be more satisfactory than any other. An explanation of the words in the passage will bring out this view. The word rendered “breaketh out” (פרץ pârats) means to break, rend, tear through - and here refers to the act of breaking through the earth for the purpose of sinking a shaft or pit in a mine. The word rendered “flood” (נחל nachal) means properly a stream or brook; then a valley in which a brook runs along; and here Gesenius supposes it means a shaft or pit of a mine. It may be called a נחל nachal, or valley, from the resemblance to a gully which the water has washed away by a mountain-torrent.
From the inhabitant - This conveys evidently no idea as it now stands. The Hebrew is מעם־גר mē‛ı̂m-gār. The word גוּר gûr, from which גר gār is derived, means to sojourn for a time, to dwell, as a stranger or guest; and the phrase here means, “away from any dweller or inhabitant;” that is, from where people dwell, or from the surface of the ground as the home of men; that is, under ground. Or the idea is, that it is done where no one could dwell. It could not be the abode of man.
Even the waters forgotten of the foot - The words “even the waters” are supplied by the translators. The Hebrew is מני־רגל הנשׁכחים hanı̂śkâchı̂ym mı̂nı̂y-regel, and refers to being unsupported by the foot. They go into a place where the foot yields no support, and they are obliged to suspend themselves in order to be sustained.
They are dried up - דלו dâlû. The word דלל dâlal, from which this is derived, means to hang down, to be pendulous, as boughs are on a tree, or as a bucket is in a well. According to this interpretation, the meaning is, that they “hang down” far from men in their mines, and swing to and fro like the branches of a tree in the wind.
They are gone away from men - The word נעו nā‛û, from נוּע nûa‛, means to move to and fro, to waver, to vacillate. Gr. and Latin νεύω neuō, nuo, Germ. nicken, to nod backward and forward. The sense here is, that, far from the dwellings of people, they “wave to and fro” in their deep mines, suspended by cords. They descend by the aid of cords, and not by a firm foothold, until they penetrate the deep darkness of the earth. Other interpretations may be seen, however, defended at length in Schultens, and in Rosenmuller - who has adopted substantially that of Schultens - in Dr. Good, and in other commentaries. Few passages in the Bible are more obscure.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 28:4. The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant — This passage is very difficult. Some think it refers to mining; others to navigation. If it refer to the former, it may be intended to point out the waters that spring up when the miners have sunk down to a considerable depth, so that the mine is drowned, and they are obliged to give it up. Previously to the invention of the steam-engine this was generally the case: hence ancient mines may be reopened and worked to great advantage, because we have the means now to take off the water which the ancient workers had not. When, therefore, floods break out in those shafts, they are abandoned; and thus they are,
Forgotten of the foot — No man treads there any more. The waters increase דלו dallu, they are elevated, they rise up to a level with the spring, or till they meet with some fissure by which they can escape; and thence מאנוש נעו meenosh nau, they are moved or carried away from men; the stream is lost in the bowels of the earth.
Mr. Peters thinks that both this verse, and Job 9:26, refer to navigation, then in a state of infancy; for the sea is not so much as mentioned; but נחל nachal, a torrent or flood, some river or arm of the sea perhaps of a few leagues over, which, dividing the several nations, must interrupt their hospitality and commerce with each other, unless by the help of navigation. According to this opinion the verse may be translated and paraphrased thus: The flood-rivers and arms of the sea - separateth from the stranger, מעם גר meim gar, divides different nations and peoples: they are forgotten of the foot - they cannot walk over these waters, they must embark in vessels; then they dwindle away, דלו dallu, from the size of men, that is, in proportion to their departure from the land they lessen on the sight; נעו nau, they are tossed up and down, namely, by the action of the waves. This receives some countenance from the psalmist's fine description, Psalms 107:26-27, of a ship in a rough sea: They mount up to heaven; they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, ינועו yanuu, (the same word as above,) they stagger like a drunken man. Mr. Good's translation is singular: -
He breaketh up the veins from the matrice,
Which, though thought nothing of under the foot,
Are drawn forth, are brandished among mankind.
This learned man thinks that it applies solely to mining, of which I cannot doubt; and therefore I adopt the first interpretation: but as to agreement among translators, it will be sought in vain. I shall just add Coverdale: With the ryver of water parteth he a sunder the straunge people, that knoweth no good neighbourheade; such as are rude, unmannerly, and boysterous.
