Job 38:30
in Job 38when the waters become hard as stone and the surface of the deep is frozen?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The waters hide themselves and become like stone, And the face of the deep is frozen.
KJV
The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
⋯
This verse in Job 38
Commentary
11 notes on this verseThe waters are hid as with a stone - Here is a reference to freezing in the winter, as we may learn from some of the constellations mentioned below, which arise above our horizon, in the winter months.
This site's exposition
Does the rain have a father
on Job 38:28-30
“Does the rain have a father” asks for a genealogy. Ice and frost are given a womb and a birth, as the sea was at verse 8. Clarke reads these figures for water in its three states as one argument that every form answers to a single unseen governor.
This site's exposition
the surface of the deep is frozen
Frozen is literally taken in Hebrew, and Barnes gives the verb as yitlakadu. The waters take hold of one another and hold together. Clarke ties the frozen deep to winter by the constellations of the next verses, which rise in the winter months.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXIX · Written before 604.
proposed
The waters are hardened after the likeness of a stone, and the surface of the deep is congealed. For I remember that I have often taught already that 'waters' are taken for peoples. But by a 'stone,' by reason of its very hardness, the Gentile peoples are sometimes designated. For they themselves worshipped stones. And of these it is said by the Prophet, Let them, that make them, become like unto them, and all who trust in them.
The other kind of ice is generated from the waters below where the cold is more intense, and so he says, "The waters harden like a stone," because the violent intensity of the cold hardens them to ice. This cold may be so great that …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
These are very common things, which lessens the strangeness of them. But, considering what a vast change is made by them in a very little time, how the waters are hid as with a stone, as with a grave-stone, laid upon them (so thick, so strong, is the ice that covers them), and the face even of the deep is sometimes frozen, we may well ask, " Out of whose womb came the ice?
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
The sense is, who was it that built this goodly fabrick, and established it so firmly that it cannot be moved. Stars - The angels, who may well be called morning-stars, because of their excellent lustre and glory. Sons of God - The angels called the sons of God, because they had their whole being from him, and because they were made partakers of his Divine and glorious image.
The waters are hid as with a stone,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
"What is the way (to the place wherein) light dwelleth?" The origin of light and darkness. In Ge 1:3-5, 14-18, "light" is created distinct from, and previous to, light-emitting bodies, the luminaries of heaven.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
The unfrozen waters are hid under the frozen, as with a covering of stone. frozen--literally, "is taken"; the particles take hold of one another so as to cohere.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The waters are hid as with a stone - The solid ice is laid as a stone upon them, wholly concealing them from view. And the face of the deep is frozen - Margin, “taken.” The idea is, they seem to take hold of one another (יתלכדוּ yitlâkadû); they hold together, or cohere. The formation of ice is thus appealed to as a proof of the wisdom of God, and as a thing which Job could not explain. No man could produce this effect; nor could Job explain how it was done.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כָּ֭אֶבֶן | kaeven | like <the> stone | H68 → | 273 times |
| מַ֣יִם | mayim | waters | H4325 → | 581 times |
| יִתְחַבָּ֑אוּ | yitchabau | they become hard | H2244 → | 33 times |
| וּפְנֵ֥י | ufenei | and [the] surface of | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| תְ֝ה֗וֹם | tehom | [the] deep | H8415 → | 36 times |
| יִתְלַכָּֽדוּ׃ | yitlakadu | they freeze | H3920 → | 121 times |
כָּ֭אֶבֶןlike <the> stone
kaevenH68 →273 times
מַ֣יִםwaters
mayimH4325 →581 times
יִתְחַבָּ֑אוּthey become hard
yitchabauH2244 →33 times
וּפְנֵ֥יand [the] surface of
ufeneiH6440 →2123 times
תְ֝ה֗וֹם[the] deep
tehomH8415 →36 times
יִתְלַכָּֽדוּ׃they freeze
yitlakaduH3920 →121 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
3 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
Job 37:10By the breath of God the ice is formed and the watery expanses are frozen.
it leads to
- Job 38:29–30
From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,
- Psalms 147:16–18
He spreads the snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;
- Psalms 78:47
He killed their vines with hailstones and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
- Job 38:29–30
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
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, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; 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.