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Selected Verse: Job 37:18 - Basic English
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Job 37:18 |
Basic English |
Will you, with him, make the skies smooth, and strong as a polished looking-glass? |
| |
King James |
Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass? |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
with him--like as He does (Job 40:15).
spread out--given expanse to.
strong pieces--firm; whence the term "firmament" ("expansion," Gen 1:6, Margin; Isa 44:24).
molten looking glass--image of the bright smiling sky. Mirrors were then formed of molten polished metal, not glass. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
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. Ancient mirrors were so highly polished that in some which have been discovered at Thebes the luster has been partially restored, though they have been buried for many centuries. There can be no doubt that the early apprehension in regard to the sky was, that it was a solid expanse, and that it is often so spoken of in the Bible. There is, however, no direct declaration that it is so, and whenever it is so spoken of, it is to be understood as popular language, as we speak still of the rising or setting of the sun, though we know that the language is not philosophically correct. The design of the Bible is not to teach science, but religion, and the speakers in the Bible were allowed to use the language of common life - just as scientific men in fact do now. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| With him - Wast thou his assistant in spreading out the sky like a canopy over the earth? Strong - Which though it be very thin and transparent, yet is also firm and compact and steadfast. 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. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Hast 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?
Strong - as a molten looking-glass? - Like a molten mirror. The whole concave of heaven, in a clear day or brilliant night, being like a mass of polished metal, reflecting or transmitting innumerable images. |
24 The Lord, who has taken up your cause, and who gave you life in your mother's body, says, I am the Lord who makes all things; stretching out the heavens by myself, and giving the earth its limits; who was with me?
6 And God said, Let there be a solid arch stretching over the waters, parting the waters from the waters.
15 See now the Great Beast, whom I made, even as I made you; he takes grass for food, like the ox.
23 The looking-glasses, and the fair linen, and the high head-dresses, and the veils.
26 They will come to an end, but you will still go on; they all will become old like a coat, and like a robe they will be changed:
4 And the heavens will be rolled together like the roll of a book: and all their army will be gone, like a dead leaf from the vine, or a dry fruit from the fig-tree.
6 And God said, Let there be a solid arch stretching over the waters, parting the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the arch for a division between the waters which were under the arch and those which were over it: and it was so.
22 It is he who is seated over the arch of the earth, and the people in it are as small as locusts; by him the heavens are stretched out like an arch, and made ready like a tent for a living-place.