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Job_28:2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass [is] molten [out of] the stone.
Ver. 2. Iron is taken out of the earth] That is, out of the irony vein, which is said to be a drossy kind of earth, not sufficiently digested and hardened to make a stone. Of the generation of these inferior metals, see Pliny and the chemists; who yet are not to be hearkened unto when they tell us, that by their art they can turn these baser metals into gold, since they are here distinguished by their place, matter, form, &c. Neither is gold the end of other metals, every one of which is perfect in its kind; and, besides, the essence of everything is indivisible, and the use diverse. Iron can do that which gold and silver cannot. Historians tell us, that Alexander’s old soldiers, armed with shields of iron, conquered a great part of the world. But when, as growing rich, they made them shields of silver, and were there hence called Argyraspides, they were basely beaten by those whom they had formerly subdued. The first inventors of iron and brass Pliny will have to be the Chalybes, or Cyclopes. Diodorus, the Idaei, Dactyli, or Vulcan. Vulcanum, inquit, ferri, aeris, argenti, auri, omniumque quae igne fabricantur, artem invenisse, ferunt (Diod. Sic. 1. 6). And surely if Vulcan were the same as Tubalcain (as various commentators will have it), Diodorus was not far from the truth; for he taught men to work in brass and iron, Gen_4:22. Iron they had before, and the art of using it; how else could they have ploughed the accursed earth? But this man added to their skill by his invention, he sharply and wittily taught smith’s craft, and is therefore by the heathens feigned to be the god of smiths.
And brass is molten out of the stone] That is, out of the ore, which is like a stone, and is called cadmia, as Junius here noteth, perhaps from Cadmus, whom Pliny maketh the first that invented the use of these metals, which Aristotle ascribeth to Lydus, the Scythian, Theophrastus to Delas, the Phrygian. It is probable that these were the first that showed their countrymen the use of these metals, and so were by them accounted the first authors of what was elsewhere found out long before. Some render the text thus, And the stone is melted into brass; that is, by melting, is turned into brass. Many are of the opinion that there was anciently an art of melting stones, which is now lost. Brass is, as it were, incorporated into stone or harder matter; but forced forth by the heat of fire: Aes in mediis lapidibus latet: sed ignis vehementia lapides aeris usque adeo torquentur ut veluti flumen aes effundant (Bren.). Hence the Vulgate Latin thus rendereth this hemistich, Lapis solutus calore, in aes vertitur, The stone, dissolved by heat, is turned into brass. So excellently doth Job here set forth the nature of these chief metals, as Mercer would have us to take notice.