Job 28:2 - Exposition

Iron is taken out of the earth (see the comment on Job 20:24 ). Iron was found in the hills of Palestine ( Deuteronomy 8:9 ), in the trans-Jordanic region (Josephus, 'Bell. Jud,' 4.8. § 2), in the sandstone of the Lebanon, and in Egypt, probably also in many other places. It is scarcely ever found except in the shape of iron ore, and so has to be "taken out of the earth." And brass is molten out of the stone. By "brass" we must understand copper, since the amalgam brass is never found in a natural state. Copper was yielded abundantly in very early times by the mines which the Egyptians worked in the Sinaitic peninsula. It was also obtainable from Palestine ( Deuteronomy 8:9 ), Cyprus, and Armenia ( Ezekiel 27:13 ). Sometimes it is found pure, but generally in the shape of copper ore, which has to be "molten" for the pure metal to run off.