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28 “Surely there is a mine for silver,
    and a place for gold which they refine.
Iron is taken out of the earth,
    and copper is smelted out of the ore.
Man sets an end to darkness,
    and searches out, to the furthest bound,
    the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
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.
As for the earth, out of it comes bread.
    Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
Sapphires come from its rocks.
    It has dust of gold.
That path no bird of prey knows,
    neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.
The proud animals have not trodden it,
    nor has the fierce lion passed by there.

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28 Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold where they refine it.

Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the stone ore.

Man sets an end to darkness, and he searches out the farthest bounds for the ore buried in gloom and deep darkness.

Men break open shafts away from where people sojourn, in places forgotten by [human] foot; and [descend into them], hanging afar from men, they swing or flit to and fro.

As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath [its surface, down deep in the mine] there is [a]blasting, turning it up as by fire.

Its stones are the bed of sapphires; it holds dust of gold [which he wins].

That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.

The proud beasts [and their young] have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it.

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Footnotes

  1. Job 28:5 Blasting of rocks is said to have been practiced on a large scale by the ancients (Speaker’s Commentary).