He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing.
Job has been describing the mines of his day: deep shafts, ropes swinging in the dark, ore torn out of the rock. Verse 10 is the peak of that skill, and it leads straight to a question no miner can answer.
Man's power over the rock
Nothing in the rock is hard enough to stop the search. One commentator also names what drives it.
William KellyMan's daring resources, with greed behind them, conquer every difficulty. The hard flint gives way to his hand. He overturns mountains by the root if they stand in his way, and he cuts rivers through the rocks, to reach the precious things his eye picks out.
Following the vein, turning the water
The verse describes a method, not just brute strength.
Samuel RidoutHe cuts his way deep down, following the vein the way a river follows its course, and looking with greedy eyes at the rich shining treasures locked up inside. If water flows in, he finds a way to divert it, so that he can go after the hidden wealth he has uncovered.
The trained eye that still misjudges
The verse credits the miner with an eye that "sees every precious thing" — a real skill. But even here the expert gets it wrong.
William KellyThey develop a very sensitive sense of what a thing is worth — though they are by no means always right. Sometimes miners in our country have thrown away as rubbish something just as valuable as the thing they were after. But as a rule they do learn what is valuable.
Whose hand does the cutting
Commentators differ over who does the cutting. Most take it to be man. One reads verses 9 to 11 as God at work, and makes the timing of every discovery His.
Leslie M. GrantGod's hand does what creatures cannot. He overturns mountains at the roots, to expose what lies hidden beneath (v.9). Through the hard rocks He cuts out channels, using water to wear the rock away. And in those rocks "He sees every precious thing" — which man would not discover until God saw fit to uncover it (v.10).
The one thing the shaft never reaches
Right after this display of skill, Job asks where wisdom is. No amount of digging turns it up, and the centuries since have not changed that.
F. B. HoleThey dig down, they divert the underground stream, they make paths where the strongest beast and the sharpest-eyed bird have never walked. But in all this searching they never find wisdom. This is the question he raised in verse 12, and he was right to say that these human activities could not find it. Men may discover much, and since Job's day they have discovered a great deal more, but wisdom still escapes them.
One commentator names what the digging does produce, and what it never touches.
William KellyNo, there is no wisdom in any of that. There is self in all of it. There is what will make a man rich; there is what will bring money and maybe status; but "Where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?"
The energy turned the right way
Put the effort men spend on ore beside the effort they spend on God, and the verse turns into a rebuke.
Samuel RidoutAgain we ask: why will men not work this hard for the "hidden wisdom"? Why will they not sift it out, when it lies so close at hand — or, if they must, remove by faith the very mountains of difficulty? If the sweeping rush of "the course of this world" would swallow the true riches like a river, why do men not stop it, or turn it aside, so that they may have for themselves what is worth more than all wealth? "The one who seeks finds" is still true, though this seeking and this finding are nothing like the hard work of digging for gold. The wisdom stays hidden and the way to it stays unknown, because men do not know God and will not listen to Him.
Summary
- Skill — Human power at its peak: flint gives way, mountains come up by the roots, water turns aside, and a trained eye picks out the treasure.
- Motive — Behind that skill lies greed. The energy is real, but so is the self in it.
- Limit — The same eye that spots every precious stone has thrown away as rubbish what was worth as much as the prize.
- Question — Right after this triumph the chapter asks, "Where shall wisdom be found?" Centuries of discovery since have brought no answer.
- Redirection — Aim that same energy at God: remove the mountains of difficulty, turn back the rush of the world's course, and seek what is worth more than all wealth.