Job 28:9-11 New English Translation
9 On the flinty rock man has set to work[a] with his hand;
he has overturned mountains at their bases.[b]
10 He has cut out channels[c] through the rocks;
his eyes have spotted[d] every precious thing.
11 He has searched[e] the sources[f] of the rivers
and what was hidden he has brought into the light.
Footnotes
- Job 28:9 tn The Hebrew verb is simply “to stretch out; to send” (שָׁלח, shalakh). With יָדוֹ (yado, “his hand”) the idea is that of laying one’s hand on the rock, i.e., getting to work on the hardest of rocks.
- Job 28:9 tn The Hebrew מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ (mishoresh) means “from/at [their] root [or base].” In mining, people have gone below ground, under the mountains, and overturned rock and dirt. It is also interesting that here in a small way humans do what God does—overturn mountains (cf. 9:5).
- Job 28:10 tn Or “tunnels.” The word is יְאֹרִים (yeʾorim), the word for “rivers” and in the singular, the Nile River. Here it refers to tunnels or channels through the rocks.
- Job 28:10 tn Heb “his eye sees.”
- Job 28:11 tc The translation “searched” follows the LXX and Vulgate; the MT reads “binds up” or “dams up.” This latter translation might refer to the damming of water that might seep into a mine (HALOT 289 s.v. חבשׁ; cf. ESV, NJPS, NASB, REB, NLT).
- Job 28:11 tc The older translations had “he binds the streams from weeping,” i.e., from trickling (מִבְּכִי, mibbekhi). But the Ugaritic parallel has changed the understanding, reading “toward the spring of the rivers” (ʿm mbk nhrm). Earlier than that discovery, the versions had taken the word as a noun as well. Some commentators had suggested repointing the Hebrew. Some chose מַבְּכֵי (mabbekhe, “sources”). Now there is much Ugaritic support for the reading (see G. M. Landes, BASOR 144 [1956]: 32f.; and H. L. Ginsberg, “The Ugaritic texts and textual criticism,” JBL 62 [1943]: 111).
New English Translation (NET)
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