Job 28:2 - "Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the ore."

We are certainly familiar with the men who work the mines in America today - but, unfortunately, we are usually familiar only because tragedy has brought them to our attention. There is a cave-in or an explosion, and men are trapped, perhaps to remain in their earthy tombs for many months until it is safe to remove their bodies. We see picture stories in our newspapers and national magazines about the poverty and despair of those whose land has been destroyed by strip mining. And so we might be tempted to look into the Bible for parallels.

Surprisingly enough, we’ll find nothing of this sort of problem. As a matter of fact, there isn’t even a Hebrew word for "mine" or "mining" in a biblical text. This would …