As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.
Parallel translations
- WEB As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
- BSB Food may come from the earth, but from below it is transformed as by fire.
- NKJV As for the earth, from it comes bread, But underneath it is turned up as by fire;
- NASB “From the earth comes food, And underneath, it is turned over like fire.
- NLT Food is grown on the earth above, but down below, the earth is melted as by fire.
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
The earth yields food on its surface, while beneath it is torn up as if by fire in the search for ore.
Overview
Job contrasts the earth's surface, which produces bread, with its depths, which men violently overturn to extract minerals. The 'fire' may refer to smelting or the upheaval of mining. The verse marvels at how thoroughly humanity exploits the earth, yet all this mastery over creation still leaves wisdom undiscovered apart from the Creator.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Isa 28:25–29When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
- Ezek 28:13–14Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
- Gen 1:29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
- Gen 1:11–12And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
- Ps 104:14–15He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 28:5 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.