Job 28 · Verse 5

Job 28:5

As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

Job 28:5, King James Version

Job 28:5 in other translations

BSB	Food may come from the earth, but from below it is transformed as by fire.
WEB	As for the earth, out of it comes bread. Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
ASV	As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; And underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
YLT	The earth! from it cometh forth bread, And its under-part is turned like fire.
DARBY	As for the earth, out of it cometh bread, and underneath it is turned up as by fire;
BBE	As for the earth, bread comes out of it; but under its face it is turned up as if by fire.
Webster	As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

What does Job 28:5 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

5. Its fertile surface yields food; and yet "beneath it is turned up as it were with fire." So Pliny [Natural History, 33] observes on the ingratitude of man who repays the debt he owes the earth for food, by digging out its bowels. "Fire" was used in mining [Umbreit]. English Version is simpler, which means precious stones which glow like fire; and so Job 28:6 follows naturally (Eze 28:14).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 5 The earth, out of it cometh bread - Or the earth, ממנה mimmennah, from itself, by its own vegetative power, it sends out bread, or the corn of which bread is made. And under it is turned up as it were fire - It seems as if this referred to some combustible fossil, similar to our stone coal, which was dug up out of the earth in some places of Arabia. The Chaldee gives a translation, conformable to a very ancient opinion, which supposed the center of the earth to be a vast fire, and the place called hell. "The earth from which food proceeds, and under which is gehenna, whose cold snow is converted into the likeness of fire; and the garden of Eden, which is the place whose stones are sapphires," etc. The Vulgate has, "The land from which bread has been produced has been destroyed by fire." If this be the meaning of the original, there is probably an allusion to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and the seventh and eighth verses may be supposed to refer to that catastrophe, there being no place left tangible or visible where those cities once stood: neither fowl nor beast could discern a path there, the whole land being covered with the lake Asphaltites.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 28:1-11

Job maintained that the dispensations of Providence were regulated by the highest wisdom. To confirm this, he showed of what a great deal of knowledge and wealth men may make themselves masters. The caverns of the earth may be discovered, but not the counsels of Heaven. Go to the miners, thou sluggard in religion, consider their ways, and be wise. Let their courage and diligence in seeking the wealth that perishes…

Read the full comment on Job 28:1-11 →

Job 28:5 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

אֶ֗רֶץ'E.retz[the] earthH776

מִמֶּ֥נָּהmi.Me.nahfrom itH4480

יֵֽצֵא\־ye.tze'-it comes forthH3318

לָ֑חֶםLa.chemfoodH3899

וְ֝תַחְתֶּ֗יהָve.tach.Tei.haand under itH8478

נֶהְפַּ֥ךְneh.Pakhit is turned overH2015

כְּמוֹ\־ke.mov-likeH3644

אֵֽשׁ\׃'EshfireH784

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 28:5

Isaiah 28:25-29
When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place? For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. …
Psalms 104:14-15
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.
Genesis 1:11-12
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:29
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Ezekiel 28:13-14
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

out of it.
Ge 1:11,12,29; Ps 104:14,15; Isa 28:25-29
fire.
Eze 28:13,14

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Job 28:4
The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.
Job 28:5
As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.
Job 28:6
The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold.

Read all of Job 28

Job 28:5 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	De la tierra nace el pan, y debajo de ella estará como convertida en fuego.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	La terre,… d’elle sort le pain; et au-dessous, elle est bouleversée comme par le feu.
German Elberfelder 1871	Die Erde, -aus ihr kommt Brot hervor, und ihr Unteres wird zerwühlt wie vom Feuer.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Terra de qua oriebatur panis, in loco suo igni subversa est.