Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Job 28:18
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls, etc.] Coral is a marine plant, is as hard as a stone, and of such value as to be reckoned among precious stones; (see Gill on “<262716>Ezekiel 27:16”). In Arabia Felix, on the shore of the Red sea, is a place called Coralia f995; it may be from coral found there. Pearls are from shellfish taken out of the sea, though these seem rather intended in the next clause: the words “ramoth” and “gabish” are left untranslated by some, and by others are taken for precious stones, though unknown, so called because they are found in high places, which both words signify. The Targum renders the first by “sandalchin”, and seems to be the same with the sardonyx, a precious stone found in Arabia, and which found there is by Pliny f996 said to excel. Junius and Tremellius render it by “sandastros”; which, as Pliny says f997, some call “Garamantis”, being bred in a place of that name in India; and he also observes, that it is found in Arabia towards the south, and has shining golden drops in the body of it; it is a sort of a carbuncle. “Gabish” seems to have some affinity with “chabazios”, mentioned by Orpheus f998 as a precious stone; but whatever precious stones are meant, as it is hard to determine what, they are not to be spoken of with wisdom, or to be compared to it: for the price of wisdom is above rubies; or rather pearls, as Bochart f999 seems to have abundantly proved, who renders the words, “the extraction of wisdom is greater than the extraction of pearls;” and so the Targum; there being, as he thinks, an allusion to the extraction of pearls out of the sea by divers into it f1000; who get them through much art, difficulty, and danger; and he observes, that there is a double extraction, or drawing them out, first of the shellfish out of the sea, and then of the pearls out of the shells; but the drawing out of wisdom, or the attainment of that; is more difficult, and superior to it, as well as attended with greater advantage; (see <200315>Proverbs 3:15) and (see Gill on “<250407>Lamentations 4:7”); and though of pearls some are very large, Oviedo f1001 speaks of one that weighed thirty one carats, and another twenty six; some as big as hazel nuts, and even as a middling walnut, and of very great price, as that bought by Pope Paul at 44,000 ducats f1002; that by Philip the Second, of the size of a pigeon’s egg, valued at an hundred forty four thousand ducats; that drank by Cleopatra at a draught, reckoned worth eighty thousand pounds sterling; and that of the emperor of Persia, bought at 110,400 pounds f1003; yet the price of wisdom is above them.
How to use this source
This excerpt is attributed to its named commentary. It is included as a historical study resource and should be evaluated in light of Scripture and other relevant evidence.
