268 CHEV. W. P. JERVIS, F.G.S., ON THE MINERALS AND 



Gold, Silver, Iron, Lead, Tin. 



Although mention is made of several minerals with reference 

 to the Garden of Eden, it by no means implies that their 

 existence there was known before the Flood. " A river went 

 out of Eden to water the garden ; and from thence it was 

 parted, and became into four heads. And the name of the 

 first is Pison, that is it which compasseth the whole land of 

 Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good : 

 there is bdellium (bedulakh, by some considered a transparent 

 gum of sweet scent ; rendered av3pa% in the Septuagint, which 

 is considered by Keferstein to signify noble garnet), and the 

 onyx stone," (sardonyx ? T., beryl? K.). (Gen. ii, 11, 12.) 



Job shows his acquaintance with mines, saying, " Surely 

 there is a vein for the silver (margin : mine) and a place for 

 gold where they find it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and 

 brass (nekhusheth, copper) is molten out of the stone. He 

 setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection, 

 the stones of darkness and the shadow of death." As for 

 the earth " the stones of it are the place of sapphires (lapis 

 lazuli), and it hath dust of gold (gold ore). There is a path which 

 no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen : 

 the lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed 

 by it. He putteth forth his hand upon the rock, he over- 

 turneth the mountains by the roots ; he cutteth out livers 

 among the rocks, and his eye seeth every precious thing ; he 

 bindeth the floods from overflowing, and the thing that is hid 

 bringeth he forth to light." (Job xxviii, 1, 6-11.) 



It is certain that Job, living as he did in the great alluvial 

 plain near the mouth of the Euphrates, had no personal 

 knowledge of the mines situated in mountainous countries ; his 

 accounts of them were derived from others. This passage is 

 the graphic poetical conception he formed of mining operations, 

 beautiful, but perhaps the English translation does not do him 

 justice. 



Copper, in all cases nekhusheth. 



Copper, erroneously translated brass, occurs in 120 verses of 

 the Old Testament, besides being arbitrarily mentioned four 

 times as steel. 



Copper as Personal Property. 



Copper and iron are the only two metals of which the 

 extraction from their ores by metallurgical processes is 



