Job 20:24

20:24 If he flees from an iron weapon,

then an arrow from a bronze bow pierces him.

Job 28:2

28:2 Iron is taken from the ground,

and rock is poured out as copper.

Job 40:18

40:18 Its bones are tubes of bronze,

its limbs like bars of iron.

Job 41:27

41:27 It regards iron as straw

and bronze as rotten wood.


tn Heb “a bronze bow pierces him.” The words “an arrow from” are implied and are supplied in the translation; cf. “pulls it out” in the following verse.

tn Heb “from dust.”

tn The verb יָצוּק (yatsuq) is usually translated as a passive participle “is smelted” (from יָצַק [yatsaq, “to melt”]): “copper is smelted from the ore” (ESV) or “from the stone, copper is poured out” (as an imperfect from צוּק [tsuq]). But the rock becomes the metal in the process. So according to R. Gordis (Job, 304) the translation should be: “the rock is poured out as copper.” E. Dhorme (Job, 400), however, defines the form in the text as “hard,” and simply has it “hard stone becomes copper.”