Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
The gold and the crystal - A crystal, in chemistry, is an inorganic body which, by the operation of affinity, has assumed the form of a regular solid, terminated by a number of plane and smooth surfaces. It is round in various forms and sizes, and is composed of a great variety of substances. The common "rock crystal" is a general name for all the transparent crystals of quartz, particularly of limpid or colorless quartz. "Webster." The word used here ( ּ ze kûkı̂yth ) occurs nowhere else in the Bible. It is from zâkâh , to be clean, pure; and is given to the crystal on account of its transparency. In Arabic the word means either glass or crystal. Jerome translates it, "vitrum" - glass; the Septuagint ̔́ hualos - crystal, or the "lapis crystallinus." Hesychius says that the crystal denotes ̀ ́ lampron kruos - "clear ice" or, ́ ́ lithon timion - "a precious stone." There is no reason to suppose that "glass" was known so early as this, and the probability is that the word here denotes something like the rock crystal, having a strong resemblance to the diamond, and perhaps then regarded as nearly of equal value. It cannot be supposed that the relative value of gems was then understood as it is now.
Jewels of fine gold - Margin, "vessels." The Hebrew word ke lı̂y properly means vessels, or instruments. It may refer here, however, to ornaments for the person, as it was in that way chiefly that gold was employed.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Job 28:17:
Deuteronomy 33:18-19
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