Bible Strands
Job 22:24
and consign your gold to the dust and the gold of Ophir to the stones of the ravines,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Eliphaz the Temanite addresses Job in his third speech, listing the required actions before promising divine restoration. The verse functions as the second step in a conditional command that begins in Job 22:23 and concludes in Job 22:25.
The words — The imperative שִׁית־ (shit-) means "put" or "consign," directing action toward עָפָר ('a.Far), literally "dust." The noun בָּ֑צֶר (Ba.tzer) denotes refined gold, specifically the gold of Ophir mentioned in the same clause.
The thread — Gold from Ophir appears in Genesis 10:29 as a geographical marker, in 1 Kings 9:28 as Solomon's imported wealth, and in Isaiah 13:12 as a benchmark for rarity. This verse repurposes that known standard to illustrate total relinquishment of material security.
Why it lands — The text commands the deliberate surrender of prized possessions to worthless places as a prerequisite for spiritual realignment. The reader must acknowledge that clinging to material wealth blocks the promised restoration.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 9:28 They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents—and delivered it to Solomon.
- Isaiah 13:12 I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.
- Genesis 10:29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.
- 1 Kings 10:21 All King Solomon’s drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, because it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.
- 1 Kings 22:48 Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.
- 2 Chronicles 1:5 But the bronze altar made by Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, was in Gibeon before the tabernacle of the LORD. So Solomon and the assembly inquired of Him there.
- 2 Chronicles 9:10 (The servants of Hiram and of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir also brought algum wood and precious stones.
- 2 Chronicles 9:27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills.
- Job 31:25 if I have rejoiced in my great wealth because my hand had gained so much,
- Psalms 45:9 The daughters of kings are among your honored women; the queen stands at your right hand, adorned with the gold of Ophir.