Job 28:11

He bindeth the floods from overflowing,.... As the miner finds ways and means of cutting through rocks, and draining and carrying off the waters in his mine; so he makes use of other methods of

He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light. Floods.

He restraineth the floods, and as it were bindeth them to their good behaviour, that they may not overflow the mine; and those metals which did lie hid in the secret parts of the earth, he discovers to himself and others.

Job 28:11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and [the thing that is] hid bringeth he forth to light.Ver. 11. He bindeth the floods from overflowing] Heb. From weeping; that is (by an elegant metaphor), from distilling and dropping, as those underground waters use to do; but the miner bindeth them; that is, he dammeth them up, and diverteth them, that they may not fall into his pit and mar his work. Thus he removes all blocks, and devours all difficulties, and all for a little pelf, which perisheth in the use, and will rather hinder from than help men to heaven. How much more should we labour for the true treasure, the pearl of price, the one thing necessary? &c. Si tanti vitreum, quanti veram margaritam? (Tertul.). All those outward things are nec vera, nee vestra, as Austin elegantly; they are neither true riches, nor ours, but another’ s, as our Saviour telleth us, Luke 16:12. Aristotle also teacheth us, That wise men may get riches, but not make it their business, Aλλ’ ουτουτεστιπεριουσπουδαζουσι (Polit. lib. 1). Brentius reads this text, Perplexa fluminum gyrat, He turneth about the crooked rivers, putting them into a new channel, that he may get the gold and precious stones that lie in the bottom; for there are some gold flowing rivers; such as are Ganges in India, Pactolus in Asia, Tagus in Spain, the Rhine in Germany, &c. And the thing that is hid he bringeth to light] Contrary to the design of nature, he revealeth her secrets, and discovereth all that she hideth by this raking out of her riches, and making those things that lie couchant in her bowels as common as if they grew above ground.

Verse 11. He bindeth the floods] Prevents the risings of springs from drowning the mines; and conducts rivers and streams from their wonted course, in order to bring forth to light what was hidden under their beds. The binding or restraining the water, which, at different depths, annoys the miner, is both difficult and expensive: in some cases it may be drawn off by pipes or canals into neighbouring water courses; in others, it is conducted to one receptacle or reservoir, and thence drawn off. In Europe it is generally done by means of steam-engines. What method the ancients had in mining countries, we cannot tell; but they dug deep in order to find out the riches of the earth. PLINY says, nervously, Imus in viscera terrae; et in sede manium opes quaerimus. "We descend into the bowels of the earth; and seek for wealth even in the abodes of departed spirits." The manes or ghosts of the dead, or spirits presiding over the dead, were supposed to have their habitation in the centre of the earth; or in the deepest pits and caves. OVID, speaking of the degeneracy of men in the iron age, Met. lib. i., ver. 137, says: - Nec tantum segetes alimentaque debita dives Poscebatur humus; sed itum est in viscera terrae: Quasque recondiderat, Stygiisque admoverat umbris, Effodiuntur opes, irritaenenta malorum. Jamque nocens ferrum, ferroque nocentius aurum Prodierat: prodit bellum, quod pugnat utroque; Sanguineaque manu crepitantia concutit arma. "Nor was the ground alone required to bear Her annual income to the crooked share: But greedy mortals, rummaging her store, Digg'd from her entrails first the precious ore; And that alluring ill to sight display'd, Which, next to hell, the prudent gods had laid. Thus cursed steel, and more accursed gold, Gave mischief birth, and made that mischief bold; And double death did wretched man invade, By steel assaulted, and by gold betray'd." DRYDEN. By binding the floods from overflowing, some have supposed that there is an allusion to the flux and reflux of the sea. In its flowing it is so bound, has its bounds assigned by the Most High, that it does not drown the adjacent country; and in its ebbing the parts which are ordinarily covered with the water are brought to view.

11. he bindeth the floods from overflowing] Rather, he bindeth up the streams that they drip not, lit. that they weep not. The reference is to the use of lime or clay to prevent water percolating into the mine. “The picturesque phrase (‘that they weep not’) may have been a technical term among miners in ancient times, just as our colliers name the action of the water that percolates through and into their workings weeping, and our navvies call the fine sand which percolates through the sides of a tunnel crying sand” (Cox, Comm. on Job, p. 360). These references to mining operations shew that the Writer was familiar with them. The frequent allusions to Egypt indicate that the Author of the Book was well acquainted with that country, and possibly the mines that were extensively worked in the peninsula of Sinai would be an object of interest to travellers from Palestine to Egypt. It appears, however, that mining was in ancient times carried on in the Hauran and even in the Lebanon; and in Deuteronomy 8:9 Palestine is described as “a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.”

He bindeth the floods from overflowing - Margin, Weeping The Hebrew also is “from weeping” מבכי mı̂bekı̂y; referring to the water which trickles down the shaft of the mine.

11. From overflowing — From weeping, (margin.) A beautiful figure to represent the commonplace task of the miner, that of binding up the ever trickling subterranean rills.