He sets an end to darkness, and searches out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.
The word above rendered “perfection” is takliyth, a five-times used Hebrew word meaning completion. The verse is Job 28:3 and is Job describing the end of darkness, when the LORD Himself searches out, brings to light, the things of which men are ignorant: the causes of the shadow of death.
The word first appears, rendered “end,” in Nehemiah 3:21, a verse wherein several proper names appear, which when translated give us a meaning similar to the title verse. “After him [Baruch – the blessed] repaired Meremoth [when the resurrected are raised] the son of Urijah [by the fire of Jehovah] the son of Koz [among the thorns – the wicked in power] another piece, from the door of the house of Eliashib [the entrance {into the kingdom of heaven} God will restore] even to the end [takliyth – the completion] of the house of Eliashib [God restores].”
In Job 28 this completion is spoken of as like mining and refining precious metals and stones from the earth, referring to the ideas buried in His word. These are contrasted with the stones of darkness, the ideas of the ignorant, with which men have replaced sound doctrine (self-evident truths), causing a shadow of death to cover the earth.
Job 28
1 Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.
2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.
3 He sets an end to darkness, and searches out all perfection [takliyth]: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.
4 The flood breaks out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.
5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.
6 The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it has dust of gold.
7 There is a path which no fowl knows, and which the vulture’s eye has not seen:
8 The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.
9 He puts forth his hand upon the rock; he overturns the mountains by the roots.
10 He cut out rivers among the rocks; and his eye sees every precious thing.
11 He binds the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid brings he forth to light.
12 But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
13 Man knows not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
14 The depth says, It is not in me: and the sea says, It is not with me.
15 It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
17 The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
18 No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
20 Whence then comes wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?
21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
22 Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
23 God understands the way thereof, and he knows the place thereof.
24 For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole heaven;
25 To make the weight for the winds; and he weighs the waters by measure.
26 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:
27 Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.
The word takliyth is used, recorded in Job 11:7, also rendered “perfection,” by Zophar in accusingly asking Job if by searching he can find out God Almighty unto this completion. It is this question Job is answering above, saying it is God who searches, finds, and brings darkness (ignorance) to an end.
Job 11
1 Then answered Zophar [who has departed {from God}] the Naamathite [fallen in pleasure], and said,
2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?
3 Should your lies make men hold their peace? and when you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?
4 For you have said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in your eyes.
5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you;
6 And that he would show you the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
7 Can you by searching find out God? can you find out the Almighty unto perfection [takliyth]?
8 It is as high as heaven; what can you do? deeper than hell; what can you know?
9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
10 If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?
11 For he knows vain men: he sees wickedness also; will he not then consider it?
12 For vain men would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.
13 If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward him;
14 If iniquity be in your hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in your tabernacles.
15 For then shall you lift up your face without spot; yea, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:
16 Because you shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:
17 And your age shall be clearer than the noonday: you shall shine forth, you shall be as the morning.
18 And you shall be secure, because there is hope; yea, you shall dig about you, and you shall take your rest in safety.
19 Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto you.
20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.
The ignorance above displayed is what Paul speaks of, in Romans 10, where men go about attempting to prove themselves correct (righteous), rather than submitting to the correction that comes from God. He goes on the say we can’t search out Christ, in heaven or earth, but rather, He is raised in us when we confess we have, by our faith, encountered Him alive among us, risen from the dead.
Friends, I tell you plainly, I have not searched out and found the things I teach and preach. I searched for the LORD and found Him alive in me, leading me into all truth. It is believing this, others believing they have encountered the LORD, first as the Holy Spirit in those peaching Him to us, and then receiving Him, realizing it is the LORD, we are saved by confessing He is in us doing His strange work.
Isaiah 28
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim [break forth as great waters {this word from heaven} upon the enemies of David], he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon [as great hailstones {the word of God, reserved for this moment} sent from heaven upon the enemies of God’s people], that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the LORD God of hosts a consumption [an end – a completion], even determined upon the whole earth.
23 Give you ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
Hebrews 11
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.
3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks.
5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
10 For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Romans 10
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel [all God’s people at large] is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.
5 For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which does those things shall live by them.
6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what says it? The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture says, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same LORD over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, LORD, who has believed our report?
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes truly, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
20 But Isaiah is very bold, and says, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
The city we look for is that which Hebrews 12 tells us is mount Zion, the city of the Living God, heavenly Jerusalem. The chapter continues on telling us to hear the voice of the one speaking, which is the voice of Father speaking His correction through the son. This is the voice the LORD tells us of in Deuteronomy 30, calling us to listen, which is quoted above in Romans 10, telling us He is found in the words from our mouth.
Hebrews 1
1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
Hebrews 12
22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Deuteronomy 30
10 If you shall hearken unto the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if you turn unto the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.
11 For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not hidden from you, neither is it far off.
12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
14 But the word is very near unto you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.
15 See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil;
16 In that I command you this day to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply: and the LORD your God shall bless you in the land whither you go to possess it.
17 But if your heart turn away, so that you will not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
18 I denounce unto you this day, that you shall surely perish, and that you shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither you pass over Jordan to go to possess it.
19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live:
20 That you may love the LORD your God, and that you may obey his voice, and that you may cleave unto him: for he is your life, and the length of your days: that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Psalms 139
1 O LORD, you have searched me, and known me.
2 You know my down-sitting and mine uprising, you understand my thought afar off.
3 You compass my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5 You have beset me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
7 Whither shall I go from your spirit? or whither shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
12 Yea, the darkness hides not from you; but the night shines as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to you.
13 For you have possessed my reins: you have covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise you; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are your works; and that my soul knows right well.
15 My substance was not hid from you, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect [not completed]; and in your book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious also are your thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with you.
19 Surely you will slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, you bloody men.
20 For they speak against you wickedly, and your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate you? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect [takliyth] hatred: I count them mine enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalms 108
1 O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2 Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
3 I will praise you, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto you among the nations.
4 For your mercy is great above the heavens: and your truth reaches unto the clouds.
5 Be you exalted, O God, above the heavens: and your glory above all the earth;
6 That your beloved may be delivered: save with your right hand, and answer me.
7 God has spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem [their burden], and mete out the valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead [the testimony] is mine; Manasseh [those who have forgotten God] is mine; Ephraim [those receiving this blessing] also is the strength of mine head; Judah [God’s elect remnant] is my lawgiver;
9 Moab is my wash-pot [at the gates of hell I will wash them and raise up a purified people]; over Edom will I cast out my shoe [will take possession of what the enemies among us have possessed]; over Philistia [the invading army] will I triumph.
10 Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?
11 Will not you, O God, who have cast us off? and will not you, O God, go forth with our hosts?
12 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
13 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.
