a puff · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
God
אֵ֥ל'el
H410
strength · noun, common masculine singular absolute
frost
קָ֑רַחKa.rach
H7140
ice (as if bald · noun, common masculine singular absolute
given
יִתֶּןyi.ten-
H5414
to give · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
breadth
וְרֹ֖חַבve.Ro.chav
H7341
width (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
waters
מַ֣יִםMa.yim
H4325
water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
straitened
בְּמוּצָֽקbe.mu.Tzak
H4164
narrowness · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 38:29-30 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
Psalms 147:16-18 He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
Psalms 78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 37:6-13
The changes and extremities of the weather, wet or dry, hot or cold, are the subject of a great deal of our common talk and observation; but how seldom do we think and speak of these things, as Elihu does here, with an awful regard to God the director of them, who shows his power and serves the purposes of his providence by them! We must take notice of the glory of God, not only in the thunder and lightning, but in the more common revolutions of the weather, which are not so terrible and which make less noise. As,
I. In the snow and rain, Job 37:6. Thunder and lightning happen usually in the summer, but here he takes notice of the winter-weather. Then he saith to the snow, Be thou on the ear…
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; Psa 147:17-18).
Adam Clarke on Job 37:10
By the breath of God frost is given - The freezing of water, though it is generally allowed to be the effect of cold, and has been carefully examined by the most eminent philosophers, is still involved in much mystery; and is a very proper subject to be produced among the great things which God doeth, and which we cannot comprehend, Job 37:5. Water, when frozen, becomes solid, and increases considerably in bulk. The expansive power in freezing is so great, that, if water be confined in a gun-barrel, it will split the solid metal throughout its whole length. Bombshells have been filled with water, and plugged tight, and exposed to cold air, when they have been rent, though the shell has been…
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 compa…
The Church Fathers
"The ice is formed by the breath of God. Not only does the abundance of iniquity beleaguer those who put in man their hopes, but good works themselves of those who have the spirit of God harden hearts frozen with envy: for them St. Paul is a smell of death for death (4). And who will understand how the ice is formed in the breath of the Lord? Just as carnal men, who praise their fellows, cool themselves down and give themselves up to despair, in the face of iniquity; likewise those who desire to be praised, harden themselves and surrender themselves to envy, if the justice of men refuses them this tribute of praise. "He leads the water as he pleases; Making rain fall on one city and not on the other (5); that which must be understood of the dew of grace, which it spreads in souls according to whether they are submissive or not.
When God bloweth, the ice congeals. And the waters are again poured forth abundantly. Because, as the Holy Spirit breathed on the hearts of the faithful, and conferred greater miracles of power, benumbing envy grew up the more in the sluggish hearts of the faithless; and the unbelieving multitude became hardened against God, from the same causes, as the humble people softened the obduracy, with which it had bound itself. For when God blew on them, they were turned into ice, who said, through envy of the miracles they had witnessed; Behold, the whole world hath gone after Him. [John 12, 19] They were beholding the signs, perceiving the miracles performed by His ministers, and foreseeing, that the whole world was now about to follow the preaching of the faith; and yet, the more the Holy Spirit had filled the world, the more firmly was the malice of envy binding their minds. The water therefore had been turned into ice, when sluggish Judaea was still remaining in envy, as the whole world was going after God. But because Divine Power was sufficient to soften the hardness even of such great cruelty, and to melt the hearts of unbelievers to love Him, after this ice it is immediately well subjoined; And the waters are again poured forth abundantly. For the Lord has in truth poured forth the waters abundantly, after this ice; for after He had endured the hardness of the Jews, even unto death, He immediately melted their hearts from the hardness of unbelief, by breathing on them the love of Himself; in order that they might afterwards run the more eagerly to obey Him, the more obstinately they had before resisted His commands. Whence it is well said by a certain wise man, As ice in fair weather, so shall thy sins be melted away. [Ecclus. 3, 15] The Prophet had desired to be freed from the ice of this torpor, when saying, Turn our captivity, O Lord, as the stream in the South. [Ps. 126, 4] Of these waters, that is, of people flocking together to the Lord, it is said again, He will send forth His word, and will melt them: His breath will blow, and the waters will flow. [Ps. 147, 18] Waters run from ice, because many great preachers are made out of hard persecutors. Ice therefore melts in water, when the numbness of inward cold is changed into the irrigation of preaching. Was not Paul ice, who when going to Damascus, after he had received letters, was seeking to check…
Dictionary and topics
Frost — (Heb. kerah, from its smoothness) Job 37:10 (R.V., “ice”); Gen. 31:40; Jer. 36:30; rendered “ice” in Job 6:16, 38:29; and “crystal” in Ezek. 1:22. “At the present day frost is entirely unknown in the…
Breath · Of God — Of God
Clouds · Power and wisdom of God exhibited in condensing — Power and wisdom of God exhibited in condensing
Providence Of God, The · Is exercised in: Ruling the elements — Is exercised in: Ruling the elements
Religion · NATURAL — NATURAL
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
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 sig…
