LEAD
(Heb. “ophereth”). It was a metal known to the ancients. The Israelites found lead in the loot taken from the Midianites (Num. 31:22). The Egyptians used it (Against Apion 1:34); It was very abundant in the Sinai Peninsula; It was also found in Egypt and Tarshish (Ez. 27:12), from where it was exported.
Lead was used for weight (Zech. 5:7); it was written on lead tablets (Tacitus, Annals, 2:69; Pliny, Natural History 13:21; Pausanias 9:31, 4). Jb. 19:24 would be an allusion to these tablets, but it can be admitted that Job wanted to carve the letters into the rock so that they would remain indelible.