Job 28:3

He setteth an end to darkness,.... Some understand this and what follows of God, who, by making the luminaries, has fixed the periods and revolutions of light and darkness, of day and night; or who

He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death. 'Man makes an end of darkness' by exploring the darkest depths (with torches).

He; either, 1. Man, the miner; or, 2. God, of whose works of nature he here speaks; or, 3. God as the chief author and director, and man as God’ s instrument in the work. An end; or, a bound, how far the darkness shall reach, and how far the dark and hidden parts and treasures of the earth shall be searched, and discovered, and brought to light. All perfection, i.e. metals and minerals, which are nothing else but earth concocted, and hardened, and brought to maturity and perfection. Or, unto all perfection, i.e. he perfectly and exactly searcheth them out; although the Hebrew lamed may be here only a note of the accusative case, as our translation takes it. The stones; either gems and precious stones, which are called by this word, ; or those stones out of which the metals forementioned are taken. Of darkness, and the shadow of death; which lie hid in the dark and deadly shades and bowels of the earth.

Job 28:3 He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.Ver. 3. He setteth an end to darkness] i.e. He (viz. the miner) brings light down into the dark entrails of the earth, and fetches out those metals that had long lain hid there, and that else would never have been beheld. Though Nature hath taken pleasure, as one speaketh, to hide all these metals, yet industry provideth man of certain marks for to discover them, and infallible conjectures to know the time when they must be drawn out of their darkness. Habent metallici suas virgas metallicas, Metal workers have their metal rods, whereby they search into and distinguish between metals and minerals. Quasque recondiderat, Stygiisque admoverat undis, Effodiuntur opes irritamenta malorum (Ovid. Metam.). And searcheth out all perfection] sc. That is to be found in those subterraneous cells, in that bosom and bottom of the earth; the utmost that is there to be had he thoroughly eviscerateth, digging many yards underground, where nothing is to be seen but a deadly shade; Ex cuius horrore mori quis posset; enough to frighten one to death; beside the deadly damps, which suddenly breaking out of the veins of the earth, do sometimes choke the workmen. The stones of darkness, &c.] That is, the darkest stones that lie lowest of all in the earth’ s bowels, whither one would wonder how any man should ever come; and especially how the sun and stars should come by their influences to make those metals, and the precious stones, that are engendered and bred in the darksome and deadly vaults of the earth.

(3) He setteth an end to darkness.—May be read thus, Man setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out to the furthest bound the stones of darkness and the shadow of death.

Verse 3. He setteth an end to darkness] As it is likely Job still refers to mining, the words above may be understood as pointing out the persevering industry of man in penetrating into the bowels of the earth, in order to seek for metals and precious stones. Even the stones that lay hidden in the bowels of the earth he has digged for and brought to light, and has penetrated in directions in which the solar light could not be transmitted; so that he appears to have gone to the regions of the shadow of death. Mr. Good translates: "Man delveth into the region of darkness; and examineth, to the uttermost limit, the stones of darkness and death-shade."

3–11. Description of mining operations. he setteth] To prevent ambiguity it is better to translate, man setteth, or, men set. The phrase “setteth an end to darkness” hardly refers to the light shed by the miner’s lamp; the expression is more general, meaning that men penetrate into what is dark and deep in the earth as if it were light and above ground—as the next clause explains. searcheth out all perfection] Rather, searcheth out to the very end, or, utmost limit, the stones of darkness and the shadow of death, that is, the darkest recesses in the bowels of the earth. The word, very end or utmost limit is that occurring, ch. Job 26:10 (see notes) and ch. Job 11:7. On “shadow of death” see on ch. Job 24:17.

He setteth an end to darkness - That is, man does. The reference here is undoubtedly to the operations of mining, and the idea is, that man delves into the darkest regions; he goes even to the outer

3. He — The miner. An end to darkness — The torch of the miner dispels the darkness of the mine, and thus “he setteth an end to darkness.” and searcheth out perfectly, (literally, to every extremity,