Bible Strands
Job 28:4
Far from human habitation he cuts a shaft in places forgotten by the foot of man. Far from men he dangles and sways.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job speaks to his three friends and the broader audience while explaining the limits of human ingenuity. He pauses his argument to describe the extreme isolation of a mining operation before returning to his point about wisdom.
The words — The verse centers on פָּרַץ (Pa.ratz), literally "he breaks open," and נַחַל (Na.chal), literally "a shaft," to describe the violent excavation of a mining tunnel. It pairs these with דַּלּוּ (Da.lu), meaning "they hang down," to depict the suspended position of the workers.
The thread — The motif of breaking open the earth to reach hidden depths appears in Job 28:3, where man probes the farthest recesses for ore. The same imagery of subterranean descent and hidden places reappears in prophetic passages like Ezekiel 26:20 and Isaiah 14:15.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human labor can penetrate the most inaccessible places yet still miss what matters. It asks the reader to weigh the gap between physical extraction and the unsearchable nature 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
The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.