Job 28:6

28:6 a place whose stones are sapphires ¹ 

and which contains dust of gold; ² 

Job 28:16

28:16 It cannot be measured out for purchase ³  with the gold of Ophir,

with precious onyx ⁴  or sapphires.

[28:6]  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.”

[28:6]  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.

[28:16]  ³ tn The word actually means “weighed,” that is, lifted up on the scale and weighed, in order to purchase.

[28:16]  ⁴ tn The exact identification of these stones is uncertain. Many recent English translations, however, have “onyx” and “sapphires.”