Albert Barnes Commentary Job 19:24

"That with an iron pen and lead They were graven in the rock for ever!" — Job 19:24 (ASV)

That they were engraved — cut in, or sculptured, as is done on stones — so that they might become a permanent record.

With an iron pen — a stylus, or an engraving tool, for that is what the word (עט ‛êṭ) means. The instrument formerly used for writing or engraving was a small, sharp-pointed piece of iron or steel, employed to mark on lead or stone, somewhat in the form of small engraving tools today. When the writing was on wax, the instrument was made with a flat head so that the writing could be obliterated by pressing the tool on or passing it over the wax.

The reason Job mentions the iron pen here is that he desired a permanent record. He did not want one made with paint or chalk, but one that would convey his sentiments to future times.

And lead — meaning, either engraved on lead or, more probably, with lead. It was customary to cut the letters deep in stone and then to fill them with lead so that the record became more permanent. I take this to be the meaning here. The Hebrew scarcely allows the supposition that Job meant the records should be made on plates of lead, though such plates were used early, perhaps not until after Job’s time.

In the rock — In early periods, it was common to make inscriptions on the smooth surface of a rock. Perhaps the first ones made were on stones placed as waymarks or as monuments over the dead, much as we now make inscriptions on gravestones. Later, it became common to record any memorable transaction, such as a battle, on stones or rocks. Perhaps, also, concise and pithy remarks were recorded in this manner to admonish travelers or to transmit them to posterity.

Travelers in the East find numerous inscriptions of this kind on tombs and on rocks in the desert. It is appropriate here to note such early inscriptions in Arabia that would make it probable they existed in Job’s time, or that indicate great antiquity.

Fortunately, we are not at a loss for such inscriptions on rocks in the country where Job lived.

The Wady Mokatta, whose cliffs bear these inscriptions, is a valley entering Wady Sheikh and bordering the upper regions of the Sinai mountains. It extends for about a three hours’ march, and in most places, its rocks present abrupt cliffs, twenty or thirty feet high. Large masses have separated from these cliffs and lie at the bottom of the valley. The cliffs and rocks are thickly covered with inscriptions, found only at intervals of a few hundred paces, for at least two and a half hours’ travel.

Burckhardt, in his travels from Akaba to Cairo by Mount Sinai, observed many inscriptions on the rocks, part of which he copied (see his Travels in Syria, London Edition, pages 506, 581, 582, 606, 613, 614).

Pococke, who also visited the regions of Mount Sinai in 1777, described the inscriptions he saw on the rocks at Mount Sinai. In Volume 1, page 148, he says, “There are on many of the rocks, both near these mountains and in the road, a great many inscriptions in an ancient character; many of them I copied, and observed that most of them were not cut, but stained, making the granite of a lighter color, and where the stone had flaked, I could see the stain had sunk into the stone.”

Numerous specimens of these inscriptions can be seen in Pococke, Volume 1, page 148. These inscriptions were also observed by Robinson and Smith and are described by them in Biblical Researches, Volume 1, pages 108, 118, 119, 123, 161, 167.

Cosmas first mentioned them around AD 535. He supposed them to be the work of the ancient Hebrews and says that certain Jews, who had read them, explained them to him as noting “the journey of a certain person, from such a tribe, in such a year and month.” Many early travelers have also noticed them, such as Neitzschitz (page 149), Monconys (Volume 1, page 245), and Niebuhr (in his Reisebeschr., Volume 1, page 250).

The copies of them made by Pococke and Niebuhr are said to be very imperfect. Those by Seetzen are better, and those made by Burckhardt are tolerably accurate (compare Robinson, Biblical Researches, Volume 1, page 553).

A large number of them were copied and published by Mr. Grey in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature (Volume 3, Part 1, London, 1832), consisting of one hundred and seventy-seven in the unknown character, nine in Greek, and one in Latin. These inscriptions, which for so long excited the curiosity of travelers, were deciphered in 1839 by Professor Beer of the University of Leipzig. He had turned his attention to them in 1833, but without success.

In 1839, his attention was again turned to them, and after several months of the most persevering application, he succeeded in deciphering the alphabet. He was thus enabled to read all the copied inscriptions with a good degree of accuracy. According to the results of this examination, the characters of the Sinaitic inscriptions belong to a distinct and independent alphabet. Some of the letters are wholly unique; others have more or less affinity with Palmyrene, and particularly with Estrangelo and Cufic. They are written from right to left.

The contents of the inscriptions, so far as examined, consist only of proper names, preceded by a word which is usually שׁלם shâlôm—peace, though occasionally some other word is used.

In one or two instances, the name is followed by a sentence that has not yet been deciphered. The names are common in Arabic. It is a remarkable fact that not one Jewish or Christian name has been found.

The question of who wrote these inscriptions receives very little light from their contents. A word at the end of some of them may be read so as to affirm that they were pilgrims, an opinion Professor Beer adopts, but this is not certain. That the writers were Christians seems apparent from the many crosses connected with the inscriptions.

The age of the inscriptions also receives no light from their contents, as no date has yet been read. Beer supposes that most of them could not have been written earlier than the fourth century. Therefore, little light is shed on who wrote them, their design, their age, or who the pilgrims were who wrote them (see Robinson, Biblical Researches, Volume 1, pages 552-556).

It is probable that such records existed in Job’s time.