Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.
- BSB “Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.
- NKJV “Surely there is a mine for silver, And a place where gold is refined.
- NASB “Certainly there is a mine for silver And a place for refining gold.
- NLT “People know where to mine silver and how to refine gold.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job opens his great poem on wisdom by noting that men know where to mine silver and refine gold.
Overview
This chapter is a meditation on where true wisdom is found. Job begins by praising human ingenuity in locating and extracting precious metals from the earth. The point builds toward a contrast: man can find hidden treasures by skill, yet wisdom itself lies beyond his reach and must be sought from God alone (verse 28).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- 1 Pet 1:7That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
- Prov 17:3The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.
- Mal 3:2–3But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
- Isa 48:10Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
- Gen 24:22And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold;
- Gen 23:15My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.
- Ps 12:6The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
- Zech 13:9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
- Gen 2:11–12The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
- 1 Kgs 10:21And all king Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.
- 1 Kgs 7:48–50And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the LORD: the altar of gold, and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was,
- 1 Chr 29:2–5Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.
- Prov 27:21As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 28:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.