Verse 18. - No mention shall be made of coral. The word translated "coral" (רָאמות) means properly "things that are high." It occurs only here and in Ezekiel 27:16. The rabbinical interpretation of the word as "coral" is doubtful, since it was unknown to the LXX. Or of pearls. The word gabish (גָבִישׁ) occurs only in this place. Some identify it with rock-crystal. For the price of wisdom is above rubies. Here we have another obscure word (פָנִינִים), which is variously rendered by "rubies," "pearls," "carbuncles," and "red coral." The balance of authority is in favour of pearls.
28:12-19 Job here speaks of wisdom and understanding, the knowing and enjoying of God and ourselves. Its worth is infinitely more than all the riches in this world. It is a gift of the Holy Ghost which cannot be bought with money. Let that which is most precious in God's account, be so in ours. Job asks after it as one that truly desired to find it, and despaired of finding it any where but in God; any way but by Divine revelation.
No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls,.... 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 Ezekiel 27:16. In Arabia Felix, on the shore of the Red sea, is a place called Coralia (n); 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 (o) said to excel. Junius and Tremellius render it by "sandastros"; which, as Pliny says (p), 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 (q) 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 (r) 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 (s); 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 Proverbs 3:15 and See Gill on Lamentations 4:7; and though of pearls some are very large, Oviedo (t) 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 (u); 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 (w); yet the price of wisdom is above them.
(n) Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. (o) Ib. l. 37. c. 6. (p) Ib. c. 7. (q) , p. 240. (r) Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 5. c. 6. col. 681, &c. (s) Of fishing for pearls in this way, see the Account of it in Vartoman. Navigat. l. 3. c. 2. in P. Martyr. Decad. 3. l. 2. and Oviedo de Occident. Ind. c. 4. and with nets, Aelian. de Animal. l. 15. c. 8. Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 9. c. 35. (t) Ut supra. (Oviedo de Occident. Ind. c. 4.) (u) P. Martyr, Decad. 3. l. 10. (w) See Chambers's Dictionary on the word "Pearl".
for the price of wisdom is above rubies; or rather pearls, as Bochart (r) 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 (s); 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 Proverbs 3:15 and See Gill on Lamentations 4:7; and though of pearls some are very large, Oviedo (t) 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 (u); 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 (w); yet the price of wisdom is above them.
(n) Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. (o) Ib. l. 37. c. 6. (p) Ib. c. 7. (q) , p. 240. (r) Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 5. c. 6. col. 681, &c. (s) Of fishing for pearls in this way, see the Account of it in Vartoman. Navigat. l. 3. c. 2. in P. Martyr. Decad. 3. l. 2. and Oviedo de Occident. Ind. c. 4. and with nets, Aelian. de Animal. l. 15. c. 8. Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 9. c. 35. (t) Ut supra. (Oviedo de Occident. Ind. c. 4.) (u) P. Martyr, Decad. 3. l. 10. (w) See Chambers's Dictionary on the word "Pearl".