Job 28:15

It cannot be gotten for gold - Genuine religion and true happiness are not to be acquired by earthly property. Solomon made gold and silver as plentiful as the stones in Jerusalem, and had all the delights of the sons of men, and yet he was not happy; yea, he had wisdom, was the wisest of men, but he had not the wisdom of which Job speaks here, and therefore, to him, all was vanity and vexation of spirit. If Solomon, as some suppose, was the author of this book, the sentiments expressed here are such as we might expect from this deeply experienced and wise man.

It cannot be gotten for gold - Margin, "fine gold shall not be given for it." The word which is here rendered "gold." and in the margin "fine gold" (סגור segôr), is not the common word used to denote this metal. It is derived from סגר sâgar, to "shut," to "close," and means properly that which is "shut up" or "enclosed;" and hence, Gesenius supposes it means pure gold, or the most precious gold, as that which is shut up or enclosed with care. Dr. Good renders it "solid gold," supposing it means that which is condensed, or beaten. The phrase occurs in nearly the same form סגור זהב zâhâb sâgûr, "gold shut up," Margin,) in 1 Kings 6:20-21; 1 Kings 7:49-50; 1 Kings 10:21; 2 Chronicles 4:21-22; 2 Chronicles 9:20, and undoubtedly denotes there the most precious kind of gold. Its relation to the sense of the verb "to shut up" is not certain. Prof. Lee supposes that the idea is derived from the use of the word, and of similar words in Arabic, where the idea of heating, fusing, giving another color, changing the shape, and thence of fixing, retaining, etc., is found; and that the idea here is that of fused or purified gold. Michaelis supposes that it refers to "native" gold that is pure and unadulterated, or the form of gold called "dendroides," from its shooting out in the form of a tree - "baumartig gewachsenes Gold" (from the Arabic, "a tree"). It is not known, however, that the Hebrew word סגר was always used to denote a tree. There can be no doubt that the word denotes "gold" of a pure kind, and it may have been given to it because gold of that kind was carefully "shut up" in places of safe keeping; but it would seem more probable to me that it was given to it for some reason now unknown. Of many of the names now given by us to objects which are significant, and which are easily understood by us, it would be impossible to trace the reason or propriety, after the lapse of four thousand years.

Neither shall silver be weighed - That is, it would be impossible to weigh out so much silver as to equal its value. Before the art of coining was known, it was common to weigh the precious metals that were used as a medium of trade; compare Genesis 23:16.