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?
⋯
This verse in Job 37
Commentary
3 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
Hearken unto this, O Job
on Job 37:14-18
Elihu turns the catalogue into a direct challenge, hearken unto this, O Job, stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God, then presses him with questions he cannot answer. Clarke reads spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass at verse 18 as an image drawn from a cast metal mirror, the sky's fixed brightness credited to God's own hand rather than any natural process Job could name. Barnes notes the pattern anticipates the whirlwind's own method in the next two chapters, unanswerable questions rather than argument.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
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.
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 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.