8:19 My fruit is better than the purest gold, 1
and what I produce 2 is better than choice silver.
28:17 Neither gold nor crystal 3 can be compared with it,
nor can a vase 4 of gold match its worth.
28:18 Of coral and jasper no mention will be made;
the price 5 of wisdom is more than pearls. 6
28:19 The topaz of Cush 7 cannot be compared with it;
it cannot be purchased with pure gold.
1 tn The two synonyms, “than gold, than fine gold” probably form a hendiadys here to express “the very finest gold.”
2 sn The language of the text with “fruit” and “ingathering” is the language of the harvest – what the crops yield. So the figure is hypocatastasis, comparing what wisdom produces to such crops.
3 tn The word is from זָכַךְ (zakhakh, “clear”). It describes a transparent substance, and so “glass” is an appropriate translation. In the ancient world it was precious and so expensive.
4 tc The MT has “vase”; but the versions have a plural here, suggesting jewels of gold.
5 tn The word מֶשֶׁךְ (meshekh) comes from a root meaning “to grasp; to seize; to hold,” and so the derived noun means “grasping; acquiring; taking possession,” and therefore, “price” (see the discussion in R. Gordis, Job, 309). Gray renders it “acquisition” (so A. Cohen, AJSL 40 [1923/24]: 175).
6 tn In Lam 4:7 these are described as red, and so have been identified as rubies (so NIV) or corals.
7 tn Or “Ethiopia.” In ancient times this referred to the region of the upper Nile, rather than modern Ethiopia (formerly known as Abyssinia).