Job 28:17-19

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 28:17 tn The word is from זָכַךְ (zakhakh, “clear”). It describes a transparent substance, and so “glass” is an appropriate translation. In the ancient world it was precious and so expensive.
2. Job 28:17 tc The MT has “vase,” but the versions have a plural here, suggesting jewels of gold.
3. Job 28:18 tn The word מֶשֶׁךְ (meshekh) comes from a root meaning “to grasp; to seize; to hold,” and so the derived noun means “grasping; acquiring; taking possession,” and therefore, “price” (see the discussion in R. Gordis, Job, 309). Gray renders it “acquisition” (so A. Cohen, AJSL 40 [1923/24]: 175).
4. Job 28:18 tn In Lam 4:7 these are described as red, and so have been identified as rubies (so NIV) or corals.
5. Job 28:19 tn Or “Ethiopia.” In ancient times this referred to the region of the upper Nile, rather than modern Ethiopia (formerly known as Abyssinia).