28:6 a place whose stones are sapphires 1
and which contains dust of gold; 2
16:18 “O earth, do not cover my blood, 3
nor let there be a secret 4 place for my cry.
28:12 “But wisdom – where can it be found?
Where is the place of understanding?
28:20 “But wisdom – where does it come from? 5
Where is the place of understanding?
18:21 ‘Surely such is the residence 6 of an evil man;
and this is the place of one who has not known God.’” 7
1 tn It is probably best to take “place” in construct to the rest of the colon, with an understood relative clause: “a place, the rocks of which are sapphires.”
2 sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 181) suggests that if it is lapis lazuli, then the dust of gold would refer to the particles of iron pyrite found in lapis lazuli which glitter like gold.
3 sn Job knows that he will die, and that his death, signified here by blood on the ground, will cry out for vindication.
4 tn The word is simply “a place,” but in the context it surely means a hidden place, a secret place that would never be discovered (see 18:21).
5 tn The refrain is repeated, except now the verb is תָּבוֹא (tavo’, “come”).
7 tn The term is in the plural, “the tabernacles”; it should be taken as a plural of local extension (see GKC 397 §124.b).
8 tn The word “place” is in construct; the clause following it replaces the genitive: “this is the place of – he has not known God.”