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Gen_2:11 The name of the first [is] Pison: that [is] it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where [there is] gold;
Ver. 11. Where there is gold.] Which, though never so much admired and studiously acquired, is but the guts and garbage of the earth. Gold is that which the basest element yields, the most savage Indians get, servile apprentices work, Midianitish camels carry, miserable muckworms adore, unthrifty ruffians spend. It is to be wondered that, treading upon these minerals, we cannot contemn them. They lie farthest from heaven, and the best of them in Havilah, farthest of all from the Church. Adam had them in the first paradise. In the second we shall not need them. Money is the monarch of this world, and answers all things; but in the matters of God, money bears no mastery, will fetch in no commodity {Job_28:15} Wise men esteemed it as the stones of the street. {2Ch_1:15} Children of wisdom might not possess it in their girdles. {Mat_10:9} Medes cared not for it; {Isa_13:17} and devils were sent to keep rich and pleasant palaces. {Isa_13:22} So subject these metals are to ensnare and defile us, that God made a law to have them purified, ere he would have them used, {Num_31:22-23} and appointed the snuffers and snuff-dishes {Exo_25:38} of the sanctuary to be made of pure gold, to teach us to make no account of what he put to so base offices, and is frequently given to so bad men. The Spaniard {a} found in the mines of America more gold than earth. Hasten we to that country where "God shall be our gold, and we shall have plenty of silver" {Job_22:25, margin}
{a} Heyl. Geog., p. 714.