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 lead us to believe that mining was not an occupation with which the Hebrews were very familiar.

Now it’s true that mining has been known from the very earliest times. Probably the most ancient method was the simple one of taking gold from materials deposited by rivers or floods. It is likely that the earliest source of lead, copper, iron, and silver was by means of outcrop mining - the surface mining of ores found in the upper levels of the soil or in the veins of rocks. However, we do also know that underground mining was practiced before the twelth century B.C., and that the Egyptians mined for copper and turquoise before 3000 B.C. As with so many things that have been excavated in Egypt and found to be amazingly modern - so too with their mines - they had shafts over 100 feet deep, which were ventilated and had pillars to support the roof!

We have heard many times of King Solomon’s mines, and it is a fact that they existed - Dr. Nelson Glueck’s explorations in Southern Palestine have disclosed extensive copper and iron mining and refining sites. Archaeologists have discovered evidence that from about 120-600 B.C. there was an intensive exploitation of the copper deposits of the Arabah, and it is highly likely that this exploitation was carried on by the Kenites, who, in turn, passed on their knowledge of mining to the Hebrews.

The work then, just as today, was arduous, and the miners lived under poor conditions. In fact, the great probability is that miners were slaves, convicts, and prisoners, who were sent to these mines to work out their sentences. Perhaps not quite the same situation exists today, but miners, in most instances, are still slaves of the system, and prisoners of poverty and neglect and indifference. So - we haven’t come too far, have we?