Bible Strands
Job 28:2
Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job addresses his companions during a poetic discourse on human industry, positioned between his description of silver mining and his account of men probing the earth's darkness. He speaks at the structural pivot of chapter 28, cataloging terrestrial extraction before introducing a higher pursuit.
The words — בַּרְזֶל (Bar.zel) means iron, and נְחוּשָׁה (ne.chu.Shah) means copper. The verb יֻקָּח (yu.Kach) renders "it is taken" from the dust (עָפָר).
The thread — This pairing of extracted metals appears in Deuteronomy 8:9 as a geological marker of the promised land, Genesis 4:22 in the craft of Tubal-cain, and Numbers 31:22 during the ritual purification of captured vessels.
Why it lands — The text states that humans actively remove and smelt metals from the earth, establishing a baseline of human capability. It asks the reader to acknowledge the limits of that capability when the discourse shifts to the location of wisdom.
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
Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 8:9 a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper.
- Genesis 4:22 And Zillah gave birth to Tubal-cain, a forger of every implement of bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
- Numbers 31:22 Only the gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead—
- 1 Chronicles 22:14 Now behold, I have taken great pains to provide for the house of the LORD—100,000 talents of gold, 1,000,000 talents of silver, and bronze and iron too great to be weighed. I have also provided timber and stone, and you may add to them.