Job 28:7 Commentary and Bible Study

The entire surface of the globe has been explored by the creatures that God has made, and when man searches out the remoter regions of his world, he can be sure that though he comes there for the first time, they are well known to the animals that live there. The falcon has access to the rocky ledges which few people ever reach and its perfect vision can spy out every nook and cranny. The proud lion strides through the jungle and claims it as its own, while all other creatures shrink from its presence. But none of these creatures, that surpass man in their knowledge of the surface, ever reach down into the depths below. This is a region they cannot explore and don’t wish to go to. Yet here the miner ventures; he is indeed resourceful and his search for treasure takes him far away from the well-trodden paths of the world of light.The miner’s resourcefulness is described in poetic form by Job. That hand which seems so soft in comparison with the flint of the rock nevertheless has great power by virtue of its ingenuity. Using machines which are the product of his fertile mind, the miner takes hold of the solid rock and even of the mountains. It is as though he is able to turn the very mountains upside down exposing, their hidden roots and offering them up for investigation so that they are forced to reveal their secrets, secrets covered since the foundation of the world. Of course he does not really turn mountains upside down, but his mining activity effectively does this. However the poetry is important because it gives a clue to what the illustration means. Wisdom, figuratively speaking, is able to turn over mountains: mountains of despair, of problems, and of persecution.The miner develops techniques which help him to reach the unreachable. He cuts out ‘channels’ or better ‘passages’; these are not for water to flow through but for the miner himself to access the deep. By making these he can follow veins in the rock which are full of precious items. The passage way has exposed the contents of the rock to the miner’s scrutiny. Another time he sees an area which is inaccessible because of water, so he drains the water and diverts the stream that feeds it. In this way, what is unreachable is uncovered.