Job 37:10

By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) The breadth of the waters is straitened.—Firm, like a molten mass.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

37:1-13 The changes of the weather are the subject of a great deal of our thoughts and common talk; but how seldom do we think and speak of these things, as Elihu, with a regard to God, the director of them! We must notice the glory of God, not only in the thunder and lightning, but in the more common and less awful changes of the weather; as the snow and rain. Nature directs all creatures to shelter themselves from a storm; and shall man only be unprovided with a refuge? Oh that men would listen to the voice of God, who in many ways warns them to flee from the wrath to come; and invites them to accept his salvation, and to be happy. The ill opinion which men entertain of the Divine direction, peculiarly appears in their murmurs about the weather, though the whole result of the year proves the folly of their complaints. Believers should avoid this; no days are bad as God makes them, though we make many bad by our sins.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

By the breath of God frost is given - Not by the violent north wind, or by the whirlwind of the south, but God seems to "breathe" in a gentle manner, and the earth is covered with hoary frost. It appears in a still night, when there is no storm or tempest, and descends upon the earth as silently as if it were produced by mere breathing. Frost is congealed or frozen dew. On the formation and cause of dew, see the notes at Job 38:28. The figure is poetical and beautiful. The slight motion of the air, even when the frost appears, seems to be caused by the breathing of God.

And the breadth of the waters is straitened - That is, is contracted by the cold; or is frozen over. The waters are "compressed" into a solid mass (במוצק bemûtsaq), or are in a state of "pressure" or "compression" - or so the word used here means. What were before expanded rivers or arms of the sea, are now compressed into solid masses of ice. This, also, is proof of the greatness and power of God, for though the cause was not understood by Elihu, yet there was no doubt that it was produced by his agency. Though the laws by which this occurs are now better understood than they were then, it is no less clearly seen that it is by his agency; and all the light which we obtain in regard to the laws by which these things occur, only serve to exalt our conceptions of the wisdom and greatness of God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. the breath of God—poetically, for the ice-producing north wind.

frost—rather, "ice."

straitened—physically accurate; frost compresses or contracts the expanded liquid into a congealed mass (Job 38:29, 30; Ps 147:17, 18).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By the breath of God, i.e. by the word of God, as this very phrase is explained, Psalm 33:6; by his will or appointment, to which as the principal cause all these works are ascribed.

The breadth of the waters is straitened; the frost dries up the waters in great measure, and bringeth the remainder into a narrower compass, as we see.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

By the breath of God frost is given,.... By the word of God, as the Targum; at his command it is, at his word it comes, and at his word it goes, Psalm 147:15; or by his will, as Ben Gersom interprets it, when it is his pleasure it should be, it appears; it may be understood of a freezing wind from the Lord, for a wind is sometimes expressed by the breath of his nostrils, Psalm 18:15; and as the word "God" added to things increases the signification of them, as mountains of God are strong mountains; so the breath of God may signify a strong wind, as Sephorno notes, the north wind (q);

and the breadth of the waters is straitened; by the frost they are reduced and brought into a narrower compass; or made hard, as Mr. Broughton renders it; so hard as to walk upon, to draw carriages on, and lay weights and burdens very great upon; or become compact or bound together, like metal melted, poured out, and consolidated; though some think it refers to the thawing of ice by the south winds (r), when the waters return to their former breadth; which is done by the breath or commandment of God, as appears from the place before quoted from the psalmist, Psalm 18:15; for it may be rendered, "and the breadth of the waters is pouring out", so the Targum, when thawed; or through the pouring down of rain, so the Syriac and Arabic versions, "he sends forth plenty of water".

(q) "Induroque nives", &c. Ovid. (r) "----cum vere reverso Bistoniae tepuere nives", &c. Statii Theb. l. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters {g} is straitened.

(g) That is, frozen up and dried.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. By the breath of God frost] Rather, ice. The wind is the breath of God as the thunder is His voice. This cold breath gives ice.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - By the breath of God frost is given (comp. Psalm 147:16-18). "The breath of God," which is a metaphor for the will of God, causes alike both frost and thaw. And the breadth of the waters is straitened; or, congealed. A broad expanse of water is suddenly turned by frost into a stiff and solid mass. Job 37:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

6 For He saith to the snow: Fall towards the earth,

And to the rain-shower

And the showers of His mighty rain.

7 He putteth a seal on the hand of every man,

That all men may come to a knowledge of His creative work.

8 The wild beast creepeth into a hiding-place,

And in its resting-place it remaineth.

9 Out of the remote part cometh the whirlwind,

And cold from the cloud-sweepers.

10 From the breath of God cometh ice,

And the breadth of the waters is straitened.

Like אבי, Job 34:36, and פּשׁ, Job 35:15, הוא, Job 37:6 (is falsely translated "be earthwards" by lxx, Targ., and Syr.), also belongs to the most striking Arabisms of the Elihu section: it signifies delabere (Jer. ut descendat), a signification which the Arab. hawâ does not gain from the radical signification placed first in Gesenius-Dietrich's Handwrterbuch, to breathe, blow, but from the radical signification, to gape, yawn, by means of the development of the meaning which also decides in favour of the primary notion of the Hebr. הוּה, according to which, what was said on Job 6:2; Job 30:13 is to be corrected.

(Note: Arab. hawâ is originally χαίνειν, to gape, yawn, hiare, e.g., hawat et-ta‛natu, the stab gapes (imperf. tahwı̂, inf. huwı̂jun), "when it opens its mouth" - the Turkish Kamus adds, to complete the picture: like a tulip. Thence next hâwijatun, χαίνουσα χαῖνον, i.e., χᾶσμα equals hûwatun, uhwı̂jatun, huwâatun, mahwâtun, a cleft, yawning deep, chasm, abyss, βάραθρον, vorago; hawı̂jatun and hauhâtun (a reduplicated form), especially a very deep pit or well. But these same words, hâwijatun, hûwatun, uhwı̂jatun, mahwâtun, also signify, like the usual Arab. hawa'â'un, the χάσμα between heaven and earth, i.e., the wide, empty space, the same as 'gauwun. The wider significations, or rather applications and references of hawâ: air set in motion, a current of air, wind, weather, are all secondary, and related to that primary signification as samâ, rain-clouds, rain, grass produced by the rain, to the prim. signification height, heaven, vid., Mehren, Rhetorik d. Araber, S. 107, Z. 14ff. This hawâ, however, also signifies in general: a broad, empty space, and by transferring the notion of "empty" to mind and heart, as the reduplicated forms hûhatun and hauhâtun: devoid of understanding and devoid of courage, e.g., Koran xiv. 44: wa-af'i-datuhum hawâun, where Bedhw first explains hawâ directly by chalâ, emptiness, empty space, i.e., as he adds, châlijetun ‛an el-fahm, as one says of one without mind and courage qalbuhu hawâun. Thence also hauwun, emptiness, a hole, i.e., in a wall or roof, a dormar-window (kauwe, kûwe), but also with the genit. of a person or thing: their hole, i.e., the space left empty by them, the side not taken up by them, e.g., qa‛ada fi hauwihi, he set himself beside him. From the signification to be empty then comes (1) hawat el-mar'atu, i.e., vacua fuit mulier equals orba oiberis, as χήρα, vidua, properly empty, French vide; (2) hawâ er-ragulu, i.e., vacuus, inanis factus est vir equals exanimatus (comp. Arab. frg, he became empty, euphemistic for he died).

From this variously applied primary signification is developed the generally known and usual Arab. hawâ, loose and free, without being held or holding to anything one's self, to pass away, fly, swing, etc., libere ferri, labi, in general in every direction, as the wind, or what is driven hither and thither by the wind, especially however from above downwards, labi, delabi, cadere, deorsum ruere. From this point, like many similar, the word first passes into the signification of sound (as certainly also שׁאה, שא): as anything falling has a full noise, and so on, δουπεῖν, rumorem, fragorem edere (fragor from frangi), hence hawat udhnuhu jawı̂jan of a singing in the ears.

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