John Gill Commentary Job 22:24

"And lay thou [thy] treasure in the dust, And [the gold of] Ophir among the stones of the brooks;" — Job 22:24 (ASV)

Then you shall lay up gold as dust
Have such plenty of it, as not to be counted:

and the [gold] of Ophir as the stones of the brooks ;
which was reckoned the best, probably in Arabia; not in the East and West Indies, which were not known to Job; though some take this to be an exhortation to despise riches, and as a dissuasion from covetousness, rendering the words, "put gold upon the dust", or earth ^F9 , and trample upon it, as a thing not esteemed by you, as Sephorno interprets it; make no more account of it than of the dust of the earth; let it be like dirt unto you,

"and among the stones of the brooks", Ophir ^F11 ; that is, the gold of Ophir, reckon no more of it, though the choicest gold, than the stones of the brook; or thus, "put gold for dust, and the [gold] of Ophir for the flint of the brooks" ^F12 ; esteem it no more than the dust of the earth, or as flint stones; the latter clause I should choose rather to render, "and for a flint the rivers of Ophir", or the golden rivers, from whence the gold of Ophir was; and it is notorious from historians, as Strabo ^F13 and others, that gold is taken out of rivers; and especially from the writers of the history of the West Indies ^F14 .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F9: (rub rpe le tyvw) "pone aurum super pulverem", Codurcus; "in pulvere aurum", Cocceius; "abjice humi aurum", Beza; so Grotius.
• F11: (rypwa Mylxn ryubw) "et inter saxa torrentium Ophir", Codurcus.
• F12: "Pro rupe aurum Ophirinum", Junius & Tremellius; so Schultens.
• F13: Geograph. l. 11. p. 344.
• F14: Pet. Martyr. Decad. 3. l. 4.