What Does Job 28:6 Mean in the King James?
The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse’s “place” comes from the root “to stand,” making the mine a standing-place where sapphire and gold already lie within the earth.
THE MEANING
The ground beneath you is not exhausted by what its surface shows. Its stones hold sapphire, and its dust carries gold; hidden value is part of the world’s present material reality.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that ordinary ground is empty of worth gives way here: the verse places sapphire in its stones and gold in its dust.
THE ROOT
מְקוֹם
maqom
GROWS FROM
קום
Rise, stand, arise.
מְקוֹם (maqom, place) is formed from קום (qum, rise or stand), carrying the sense of a standing-place. English’s neutral “place” hides that connection: the verse locates its riches within the earth’s own structure.
ALSO GROWS
qam: Rose, stood.
קָם
This form makes the root’s sense of standing or rising explicit.
heqim: Raised, established.
הֵקִים
The causative form shows how something can be made to stand or be established.
אֲבָנֶיהָ
ʾavaneha
GROWS FROM
אבנ
Stone; a stone as material or a building element.
English presents stones as backdrop, while Hebrew keeps the stone-family visible in forms from a single אֶבֶן (ʾeven, stone) to אַבְנֵי פִּנָּה (ʾavne pinnah, cornerstone). אֶבֶן (ʾeven, stone) also invites the consonantal echo אָב (ʾav, father) and בֵּן (ben, son), a wordplay image of father and son held together in stone rather than a claim about formal derivation.
ALSO GROWS
ʾeven: Stone.
אֶבֶן
This is the singular form of the material named in the verse.
ʾavanim: Stones.
אֲבָנִים
The plural names stones as the earth’s material, including the stones that hold sapphires here.
ʾavne pinnah: Cornerstones.
אַבְנֵי פִּנָּה
The stone-family also names stones that anchor a structure, echoing the verse’s image of treasure embedded in the earth.
THE PATTERN
The richest things can be concealed within what looks like ordinary ground.
If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.THE THREAD
But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?Verse 6 uses מְקוֹם (maqom, place) for the ground that holds sapphire; verse 12 repeats the same word when asking where understanding has its place. The passage moves from locating riches beneath the earth to asking where wisdom itself can be found.
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