Job 37:18
in Job 37can you, like Him, spread out the skies to reflect the heat like a mirror of bronze?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Canst thou with him spread out the sky, Which is strong as a molten mirror?
KJV
Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
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This verse in Job 37
Commentary
10 notes on this verseHast thou with him spread out the sky - Wert thou with him when he made the expanse; fitted the weight to the winds; proportioned the aqueous to the terrene surface of the globe; the solar attraction to the quantum of vapours necessary; to be stored up in the clouds, in order to be occasionally deposited in fertilizing showers upon the earth? and then dost thou know how gravity and elasticity should be such essential properties of atmospheric air, that without them and their due proportions, we should neither have animal nor vegetable life?
This site's exposition
Listen to this, O Job
on Job 37:14-18
Elihu turns the catalogue into a direct challenge, “Listen to this, O Job”, then presses questions he cannot answer. Clarke reads the “mirror of bronze” as an image drawn from a cast metal mirror. Barnes notes that the pattern anticipates the whirlwind's method, unanswerable questions in place of argument.
This site's exposition
like a mirror of bronze
John Wesley notes that a mirror of that age was polished brass or steel. In the bright skies, he says, men may see the glory of God. Matthew Henry marvels that the skies stand firm.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Here he may mean, You are now in the midst of afflictions, but later you will have rest—and there is also the proof given by divine wisdom, which has foreseen death as a solution and end to human tribulations. Or perhaps [he means], even in the midst of your trials, you remain out of the fight of the war and the troubles, and he punishes you in this manner.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Since the power of the heavenly bodies operates in all these kinds of effects, he therefore proceeds next to the heavenly bodies, and so he says, "Have you perhaps made the heavens with him?" In this metaphor he expresses the causality of God over the …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXVII · Written before 604.
proposed
Thou perchance madest with Him the heavens, which are most solid, as if cast in brass. By 'heavens,' those who are created in the heavens, the angelic spirits, can be designated. Whence also we are instructed by the voice of Truth to say in our Prayer, Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. [Matt. 6, 10] That the will of God may be doubtless observed in all things even by human infirmity, as it is done by the higher creation. Of whom it is well said, They are most solid, as if cast in brass.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Looking glass - Made of brass and steel, as the manner then was. Smooth and polished, without the least flaw. In this, as in a glass, we may behold the glory of God and the wisdom of his handy- work.
6-8 ), which we see in being to this day, is a glorious instance of the divine power, considering, 1. That, though it is fluid, yet it is firm. It is strong, and has its name from its stability.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Hast thou with him spread out the sky?....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Hast thou with him spread out the sky? - That is, wert thou employed with God in performing that vast work, that thou canst explain how it was done? Elihu here speaks of the sky as it appears, and as it is often spoken of, as an expanse or solid body spread out over our heads, and as sustained by some cause which is unknown. Sometimes in the Scriptures it is spoken of as a curtain (Notes, Isa 40:22); sometimes as a “firmament,” or a solid body spread out (Septuagint, Gen 1:6-7); sometimes as a fixture in which the stars are placed (Notes, Isa 34:4), and sometimes as a scroll that may be rolled up, or as a garment, Psa 102:26. There is no reason to suppose that the true cause of the appearance of an expanse was understood at that time, but probably the prevailing impression was that the sky was solid and was a fixture in which the stars were held. Many of the ancients supposed that there were concentric spheres, which were transparent but solid, and that these spheres revolved around the earth carrying the heavenly bodies with them. In one of these spheres, they supposed, was the sun; in another the moon; in another the fixed stars; in another the planets; and it was the harmonious movement of these concentric and transparent orbs which it was supposed produced the “music of the spheres.” Which is strong - Firm, compact. Elihu evidently supposed that it was solid. It was so firm that it was self-sustained. And as a molten looking-glass - As a mirror that is made by being fused or cast. The word “glass” is not in the original, the Hebrew denoting simply “seeing,” or a “mirror” (ראי re'ı̂y). Mirrors were commonly made of plates of metal highly polished; see the notes at Isa 3:23; compare Wilkinson’s Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 365. […]
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| תַּרְקִ֣יעַ | tarkia' | will you spread out? | H7554 → | |
| עִ֭מּוֹ | imo | with him | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| לִשְׁחָקִ֑ים | lishchakim | <to> clouds | H7834 → | 21 times |
| חֲ֝זָקִ֗ים | chazakim | hard | H2389 → | |
| כִּרְאִ֥י | kiri | like a mirror | H7209 → | |
| מוּצָֽק׃ | mutzak | molten | H3332 → | 50 times |
תַּרְקִ֣יעַwill you spread out?
tarkia'H7554 →
עִ֭מּוֹwith him
imoH5973 →1050 times
לִשְׁחָקִ֑ים<to> clouds
lishchakimH7834 →21 times
חֲ֝זָקִ֗יםhard
chazakimH2389 →
כִּרְאִ֥יlike a mirror
kiriH7209 →
מוּצָֽק׃molten
mutzakH3332 →50 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 44:24Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,
it leads to
- Isaiah 45:12
It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. It was My hands that stretched out the heavens, and I ordained all their host.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 42:5
This is what God the LORD says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 54:5
For your husband is your Maker—the LORD of Hosts is His name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth.
- Isaiah 45:12
Through
Isaiah 40:12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or…
it leads to
- Proverbs 30:4
Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth?…
- Hebrews 1:10–12
And: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
- Job 38:4–11
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.
- Psalms 102:25–26
In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
- Isaiah 48:13
Surely My own hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they stand up together.
- Proverbs 30:4
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVII; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 37:17; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.