Job 28:18 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.

Red coral (Ezekiel 27:16).

Pearls - literally, what is frozen х gaabiysh (H1378)]. Probably crystal; and Job 28:17 will then be glass.

Rubies. Umbreit translates pearls (see Lamentations 4:1; Proverbs 3:15, "She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her"). The Urim and Thummim, the means of consulting God by the twelve stones on the high priest's breastplate, "the stones of the sanctuary" (Lamentations 4:1), have their counterpart in this chapter: the precious stones symbolizing the 'light' and 'perfection' (as Urim and Thummim respectively mean) of the Divine Wisdom.

Job 28:18

18 No mention shall be made of coral,g or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.