Job 22:24,25 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Then shalt thou lay up gold The word בצר, batzer, here rendered gold, is a word of dubious meaning. R. Levi, indeed, makes it parallel to zahab, gold: Ab. Ezra, to cheseph, silver. “In Arabic,” says Chappelow, “it sometimes signifies some particular stones, diversified with white lines. And this, perhaps, is the true sense of the term.” As dust In great abundance. Or, as על עפר, gnal gnaphar, rather means, upon the dust, or ground. It shall be so plentiful, and therefore vile, that thou shalt not lock it up in chests, but scatter it anywhere, and suffer it to lie, even upon the ground; as the stones of the brook As if pieces of gold were but so many pebble-stones, which are to be found in or near every brook. Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence Against the incursions of neighbouring spoilers: thy wealth shall not then lie exposed, as it did to Sabeans and Chaldeans; God, by his watchful providence, shall protect thee from all dangers and calamities. And thou shalt have plenty of silver The Hebrew, כס Š תועפות, cheseph tognapoth, is literally, argentum virium tibi, or, the strength of silver shall be to thee: that is, shall by God's blessing be thy defence, Ecclesiastes 7:12; or, as the phrase may be rendered, silver of heights, that is, high and heaped up like a mountain, Henry very properly calls our attention here to the margin, which reads gold instead of defence in the former clause of the verse, the original word being the same with that rendered gold, Job 22:24. Thus interpreted the sense is, The Almighty shall be thy gold, and silver of strength to thee; which translation is perfectly agreeable to the Hebrew. On this the same pious author observes, “Worldlings make gold their god; saints make God their gold: they that are enriched with his favour and grace may truly be said to have abundance of the best gold, and best laid up.”