The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 442

selves ln the ehe.fte and e.dits of miners. to oontrol and atop than even BUbterre.nean Nor the 11.eroe lion paaaed by it; rather, springs or rivers, And the thing th11t is paaeed therebu (see the Revised Version). hid bringeth he forth to light. Thie is the Ver. 0.-He pntteth forth hi■ hand upon fine.I result of mining operations. Things the rook. Our Revisers translate, upon the useful or beautiful that are hiddden deep flinty rook; while Oanon Oook mointoiD"il down in the heart of the earth, and tb11t thot •• the word used means either granite or might have seemed wholly inaccessible, 11re quortz." Probl\bly Job meont no more thon brought out of the pit's month into the thot ma.u does not shrink from e.ttucking light of day for the service and deleote.tion any-oven the hordest-rock: but will sub- of monkind. due it, e.nd out his we.y through it, if be hos oocasion so to do. He overturneth the Vera. 12-28.-Here we oome on an mountains by the roots. Herodotus, in de- abrupt change. From human ingennity scribing what he had seen of the Phcanicie.n and contrive.nee Job tnms to the con- mining operations in the island of Thasos, sideration of "wisdom" - that wisdom observes, "e. huge mounte.in he.e been turned upside down in the search for ores" (Herod., which has been defined as " the reason vi. 47). Pliny says of the process employed which deals with principles" (Ca.non Cook). for detaching huge mosses from the mete.lli- "Where," he asks, "is this to be found ? " ferous hills in Spain, "They a.tte.ck the It is a wholly different thing from clever• rock with iron wedges and hammers. When ness and ingenuity. It inquires into causes this work is complete, they destroy the sup- a.nd origins, into the ends and purposes of p()rts, e.nd notify by signa.l that the fall is about to te.ke place. A wa.tchme.n, stationed things; it seeks to solve the riddle of the on the mountain-top, alone understands the universe. Perfect wisdom can, of course, signal ; and he proceells at once to have all only dwell with God (ver. 23). :M:an must the workmen co.lied in, and himself me.kes be content with something much below this. a hurried retreat. Then the mountain falls With him "the fear of the Lord, that is in upon itself with e. crash that cannot be ima.gined, and an incredible concus8ion of wisdom, and to depart from evil is under- the air. The successful engineers contem- standing" (ver. 28). plate the ruin which they ho.ve achieved" (' Hist. Nat.,' xxxiii. 4. § 73). Ver. 12.-But where aha.II wisdom be Ver. 10.-He outteth ont rivers among found, •• Wisdom is the principal thing," the rooks. Some understand this of man's says Solomon (Prov. iv. 7); a.nd again, general ability to cut cane.ls and tunnels, " It is better to get wisdom than gold" and change the course of rivers. But the (Prov. xvi. 16). But where is it to be allusion is more probably to the works found? Job's three friends thought that undertaken in mines for the carrying off of it dwelt with them (eh. xii. 2); but this the water from them. Diodorus says that was e. mistake, since God reproaches them when subterranean springs were tapped in with their "folly" (eh. xlii. 8). Job doe11 mines, which threatened to flood them, it not claim to possess it (eh. ::uvi. 3): he only was usual to construct ducts, or tunnels, by desires it. It is his deep conviction that it which the inconvenient liquid might be is only possessed, in the true sense of the oarried off to a lower level (Diod. Siculua, word, by God. And where is the place of v. 37. § 3). And his eye seeth every pre- understanding 1 It is ~not quiie cleor oions thing. Nothing escapes his notice. whether Job intends to make any distinc- Even as he constructs these ducts he he.a tion between "wisdom" (;iz:i.:in) and" under- his oye open to note any signs of mineral standing" (i'tl':i). Co.non Cook suggests wealth, of mete.ls or of precious stones, that that " wisdom" is " the reason which dee.ls occur along the line of his exce.v,ition. with principles," and "understanding" Ver. 11.-He bindeth the 11.oode from over- "the fe.oulty which discerns and appreciates 11.owing. This, aguin, m11y be either t11ken their e.pplice.tiou." But re.fined distinctions generally of man's 11bility to oreate do.ms, of this kind are scarcely suits.hie to the age dykes, and emhe.nkmonts, whereby the of Job. Dean Plumptre, in his comment over.llow of waters is prevented; or spe- on Proverbs (' Speaker's Commentary,' vol. oie.lly of suoh works when conneoted with iv. p. 529), e.coepts the distinction implied mines, from which it is possible, in some in the Septuagint translation of that book, instanoea, to de.m out wa.ter tha.t would which renders i'1D::ll1 by ao4>la, and i'll':I by otherwise interfere with their working. The ,l,p&Y1Ja,s. This is a much simpler and more word translated " overflowing" means pro- easily understood distinction, being that bably " weeping," and seems to poiut to which separates between scieutiflo know- that leakage from the rcofs a.nd sides of ledge and the practical intelligence which galleries cmd 11dits whioh is more diflloult direct11 conduct. But it may be dollbted  THE BOOK 'OF .roB. [cm. :x.xvm. 1-28,