Job 28:4 Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft, in places untouched by human feet; far from other people they dangle and sway.

◄ Job 28:4 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft, in places untouched by human feet; far from other people they dangle and sway.

English Standard Version
He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives; they are forgotten by travelers; they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro.

New American Standard Bible
"He sinks a shaft far from habitation, Forgotten by the foot; They hang and swing to and fro far from men.

King James Bible
The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
He cuts a shaft far from human habitation, in places unknown to those who walk above ground. Suspended far away from people, the miners swing back and forth.

International Standard Version
He sinks his shaft far from human habitations, in a place forgotten by explorers; they hang on harnesses as they swing back and forth.

American Standard Version
He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn; They are forgotten of the foot; They hang afar from men, they swing to and fro.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The flood divideth from the people that are on their journey, those whom the food of the needy man hath forgotten, and who cannot be come at.

Darby Bible Translation
He openeth a shaft far from the inhabitants of the earth: forgotten of the foot, they hang suspended; away below men they hover.

Young's Literal Translation
A stream hath broken out from a sojourner, Those forgotten of the foot, They were low, from man they wandered.

Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

28:1-11 Job maintained that the dispensations of Providence were regulated by the highest wisdom. To confirm this, he showed of what a great deal of knowledge and wealth men may make themselves masters. The caverns of the earth may be discovered, but not the counsels of Heaven. Go to the miners, thou sluggard in religion, consider their ways, and be wise. Let their courage and diligence in seeking the wealth that perishes, shame us out of slothfulness and faint-heartedness in labouring for the true riches. How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! How much easier, and safer! Yet gold is sought for, but grace neglected. Will the hopes of precious things out of the earth, so men call them, though really they are paltry and perishing, be such a spur to industry, and shall not the certain prospect of truly precious things in heaven be much more so?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

4. Three hardships in mining: 1. "A stream (flood) breaks out at the side of the stranger"; namely, the miner, a strange newcomer into places heretofore unexplored; his surprise at the sudden stream breaking out beside him is expressed (English Version, "from the inhabitant"). 2. "Forgotten (unsupported) by the foot they hang," namely, by ropes, in descending. In the Hebrew, "Lo there" precedes this clause, graphically placing it as if before the eyes. "The waters" is inserted by English Version. "Are dried up," ought to be, "hang," "are suspended." English Version perhaps understood, waters of whose existence man was previously unconscious, and near which he never trod; and yet man's energy is such, that by pumps, &c., he soon causes them to "dry up and go away" [So Herder]. 3. "Far away from men, they move with uncertain step"; they stagger; not "they are gone" [Umbreit].