Job 28:11

He has searched ¹  the sources ²  of the rivers and what was hidden he has brought into the light.

He searches the sources of the rivers and brings hidden things to light.

"He dams up the streams from flowing, And what is hidden he brings out to the light.

They dam up the trickling streams and bring to light the hidden treasures.

They discover the origins of rivers, and bring earth's secrets to light.

He keeps back the streams from flowing, and makes the secret things come out into the light.

The sources of the rivers they probe; hidden things they bring to light.

He dams up the streams from trickling; What is hidden he brings forth to light.

He has searched ¹  the sources ²  of the rivers and what was hidden he has brought into the light.

¹ tc The translation “searched” follows the LXX and Vulgate; the MT reads “binds up” or “dams up.” This latter translation might refer to the damming of water that might seep into a mine (HALOT 289 s.v. חבשׁ; cf. ESV, NJPS, NASB, REB, NLT).

² tc The older translations had “he binds the streams from weeping,” i.e., from trickling (מִבְּכִי, mibbÿkhi). But the Ugaritic parallel has changed the understanding, reading “toward the spring of the rivers” (`m mbk nhrm). Earlier than that discovery, the versions had taken the word as a noun as well. Some commentators had suggested repointing the Hebrew. Some chose מַבְּכֵי (mabbÿkhe, “sources”). Now there is much Ugaritic support for the reading (see G. M. Landes, BASOR 144 [1956]: 32f.; and H. L. Ginsberg, “The Ugaritic texts and textual criticism,” JBL 62 [1943]: 111).