_A.M. 2484. B.C. 1520._ Job shows that the industry of man finds out many hidden things, such as silver, gold, iron, and brass, Job 28:1. But that the more valuable treasure of wisdom lies beyond his reach, and is not discoverable by any of his efforts, Job 28:12. That God, however, who alone compr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely_, &c. Job, having confuted his three friends on their own principles, in the last two and some of the preceding Chapter s, here falls into a kind of soliloquy on the difficulty of obtaining true wisdom. His friends had laid claim to it from their great age, and from their knowledge of ancien... [ Continue Reading ]
_Iron is taken out of the earth_, &c. They invent means to extract iron and brass out of the earth and stone. _He setteth an end to darkness_, &c. There is no mine so dismally dark, but there is some man or other who will undertake to work in it, and find out a method of conveying light into it: _an... [ Continue Reading ]
_The flood breaketh out_ While men are digging and searching in the mines, a flood of waters breaks in suddenly and violently upon them, and disturbs them in their work; _from the inhabitant_ Hebrew, מעם גר, _megnim gar, from with the inhabitant_, or _sojourner_, as the word rather means: that is, o... [ Continue Reading ]
_As for the earth, out of it cometh bread_ Out of the surface of the earth man gets herbs and corn, and other kinds of food for his sustenance: _and under it is turned up, as it were, fire_ Lime, to manure and enrich the ground, or coals and brimstone, and other materials of fire: unless, as some su... [ Continue Reading ]
_There is a path which no fowl knoweth_ Namely, in the bowels of the earth. Man by his industry goeth in mines under the earth, in paths where neither bird nor beast has ever entered. _Which the vulture's eye hath not seen_ Whose eye is very quick and strong, and searches all places for its prey. _T... [ Continue Reading ]
_He putteth forth his hand upon the rock_, &c. He digs through the hardest rocks by his obstinate labour; and undermines mountains, that he may find the treasures hid in their bowels. _He cutteth out rivers among the rocks_ If he meets with waters in his mining, which hinder his work, he cuts a chan... [ Continue Reading ]
_But where shall wisdom be found?_ I confess that man hath one kind of wisdom, and that in a great degree, namely, to discover the works of nature, and to perform the operations of art; but as for that sublime and eminent wisdom which consists in the perfect knowledge of all God's counsels and ways,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Man knoweth not the price thereof_ Its immense, its unspeakable value: nor can it be purchased with all that he hath to give for it. _Neither is it found in the land of the living_ It is not a thing that any part of this world affords. Nor is it found in perfection among mortal men, that live on ea... [ Continue Reading ]
_It cannot be gotten for gold_ The choicest gold laid up in treasures, as the word סגר, _segor_, signifies: _neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof_ Namely, in the balance; for in those times money was paid by weight. _It cannot be valued with gold of Ophir_ Though the gold that comes... [ Continue Reading ]
_No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls_ They are of no value, if compared with wisdom, nor fit to be mentioned as a price wherewith to purchase it. _For the price_, &c. Hebrew, משׁךְ, _meshech, the attraction_, or _extraction, of wisdom is above rubies_ מפנינים, _mippeninim, pearls._ But th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whence then cometh wisdom_, &c. By what means, then, shall we get this precious treasure of wisdom, of which we are so desirous? Who can show us where it lies, that we may go and search for it? By a diligent prosecution of this inquiry he brings us at length to this issue: That there is a two-fold... [ Continue Reading ]
_Destruction and death_ Either, 1st, Men that are dead, and thereby freed from the encumbrance of their bodies, which depressed their minds, and whose faculties are more raised and enlarged than those of men still in the body; or, rather, 2d, The grave, the habitation of the dead, to which these thi... [ Continue Reading ]
_God understandeth the way thereof_ God alone knows and can make known the nature and properties, the rules and measures, the plans and designs, the operations and effects, of this wisdom which we inquire after; or, the methods which he takes, in the management of all affairs in the world, together... [ Continue Reading ]
_To make the weight for the winds_ His wisdom it is which sets things in such exact order, and gives them such just measures, that the wind cannot blow but in those proportions which he hath prescribed. He appoints to every wind that blows its season, its degree, its bounds, when, and where, and how... [ Continue Reading ]
_When_ At the first creation, he settled that course and order which should afterward be continued; _he made a decree for the rain_ An appointment, and, as it were, a statute law, that it should fall upon the earth, and that in such times, and places, and proportions, and manner, as he should think... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then did he see it_ Namely, wisdom, which is the subject of the present discourse. This God saw, not without, in any creature formed by him, but within himself; he looked upon it in his own eternal mind, as the rule by which he would proceed in the creation and government of all things. _And declar... [ Continue Reading ]
_And_ Or, rather, _but, unto man_ For this is added by way of opposition, to show that man's wisdom doth not lie in a curious inquiry into, or an exact knowledge of God's secret counsels, and the ways of his providence, but in things of quite another nature; _he said_ Unto Adam, in the day when he w... [ Continue Reading ]