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Job_28:16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Ver. 16. It cannot be valued] Heb. Thrown on the ground, as wares were wont to be, and are yet, when they are set to sale, and to be prized or valued.
With the gold of Ophir] The word here rendered gold is not the same as that in the former or those in the following verses. Five different times gold is here mentioned (because so highly prized among men), and in four different words. Jerome on Jer_10:1-25 observeth that the Hebrew have seven different words for gold; and five different sorts are here instanced. That here mentioned is a special name for the most resplendent and glistering gold, Psa_45:9 Dan_10:5 Son_5:11. Of it comes Michtam of David, or David’s golden psalm, Psa_16:1, his ingot of gold. Broughton thinks it to be no Hebrew word, but the name of gold in Ophir; Obrizium dictum volunt, quasi Ophirizium. Ophir is Peru, say some; others, an island in the Indies, where the most precious gold was to be had, called also gold of Parvaim, 2Ch_3:6. This is supposed to be in Havilah, Gen_2:11. It is called perfections of gold, 2Ch_4:21.
With the precious onyx, or the sapphire] The onyx is a stone said to be found in the river Ganges, and to be of a white colour, like the white of a man’s nail, whence it hath its name. See of it, Plin. lib. 37, cap. 4; Boet. Hist. Gem. lib. 2, cap. 90. The sapphire is a stone of a sky coloured blue, or of a light coloured purple.