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Wednesday, July 30th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Job 37:18

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Astronomy;   God;   God Continued...;   Meteorology and Celestial Phenomena;   Mirror;   Molding;   Religion;   Thompson Chain Reference - Sky;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Copper;   Glass;   Looking-Glasses;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Cloud, Cloud of the Lord;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Glass;   Heaven;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Firmament;   Glass;   Heaven;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Firmament;   Glass;   Looking Glass;   Mirror;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Glass, Looking-Glass, Mirror;   House;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Science (2);   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Glass, Looking Glass;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Elihu;   Looking-glass;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Mirror;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Glass;   Mirrors;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Sky;   World (Cosmological);   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Mirror;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
can you help God spread out the skiesas hard as a cast metal mirror?
Hebrew Names Version
Can you, with him, spread out the sky, Which is strong as a cast metal mirror?
King James Version
Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
English Standard Version
Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror?
New Century Version
You cannot stretch out the sky like God and make it look as hard as polished bronze.
New English Translation
will you, with him, spread out the clouds, solid as a mirror of molten metal?
Amplified Bible
"Can you, with Him, spread out the sky, Strong as a molten mirror?
New American Standard Bible
"Can you, with Him, spread out the skies, Strong as a cast metal mirror?
World English Bible
Can you, with him, spread out the sky, Which is strong as a cast metal mirror?
Geneva Bible (1587)
Hast thou stretched out the heaues, which are strong, and as a molten glasse?
Legacy Standard Bible
Can you, with Him, spread out the skies,Strong as a molten mirror?
Berean Standard Bible
can you, like Him, spread out the skies to reflect the heat like a mirror of bronze?
Contemporary English Version
God can spread out the clouds to get relief from the heat, but can you?
Complete Jewish Bible
can you, with him, spread out the sky, hard as a cast metal mirror?
Darby Translation
Hast thou with him spread out the sky, firm, like a molten mirror?
Easy-to-Read Version
Can you help God spread out the sky and make it shine like polished brass?
George Lamsa Translation
Were you with him when he spread out the great sky, helping him hold it up?
Good News Translation
Can you help God stretch out the sky and make it as hard as polished metal?
Lexham English Bible
with him can you spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?
Literal Translation
Can you beat out the expanse with Him, hard like a cast mirror?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
hast thou helped him to spred out the heauen, which is to loke vpo, as it were cast of cleare metall?
American Standard Version
Canst thou with him spread out the sky, Which is strong as a molten mirror?
Bible in Basic English
Will you, with him, make the skies smooth, and strong as a polished looking-glass?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Canst thou with Him spread out the sky, which is strong as a molten mirror?
King James Version (1611)
Hast thou with him spread out the skie, which is strong, and as a molten looking glasse?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Hast thou helped him to spreade out the heauens which are strong and bright as a loking glasse?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Wilt thou establish with him foundations for the ancient heavens? they are strong as a molten mirror.
English Revised Version
Canst thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong as a molten mirror?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
In hap thou madist with hym heuenes, which moost sad ben foundid, as of bras.
Update Bible Version
Can you with him spread out the sky, Which is strong as a molten mirror?
Webster's Bible Translation
Hast thou with him spread out the sky [which is] strong, [and] as a molten looking-glass?
New King James Version
With Him, have you spread out the skies, Strong as a cast metal mirror?
New Living Translation
he makes the skies reflect the heat like a bronze mirror. Can you do that?
New Life Bible
Can you help Him spread out the sky, making it as hard as a mirror made from heated brass?
New Revised Standard
Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Didst thou spread out, with him, the skies, strong as a molten mirror?
Douay-Rheims Bible
Thou perhaps hast made the heavens with him, which are most strong, as if they were of molten brass.
Revised Standard Version
Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?
Young's Literal Translation
Thou hast made an expanse with Him For the clouds -- strong as a hard mirror!
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Can you, with Him, spread out the skies, Strong as a molten mirror?

Contextual Overview

14"Job, are you listening? Have you noticed all this? Stop in your tracks! Take in God's miracle-wonders! Do you have any idea how God does it all, how he makes bright lightning from dark storms, How he piles up the cumulus clouds— all these miracle-wonders of a perfect Mind? Why, you don't even know how to keep cool on a sweltering hot day, So how could you even dream of making a dent in that hot-tin-roof sky? 19"If you're so smart, give us a lesson in how to address God. We're in the dark and can't figure it out. Do you think I'm dumb enough to challenge God? Wouldn't that just be asking for trouble? No one in his right mind stares straight at the sun on a clear and cloudless day. As gold comes from the northern mountains, so a terrible beauty streams from God.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

spread: Job 9:8, Job 9:9, Genesis 1:6-8, Psalms 104:2, Psalms 148:4-6, Psalms 150:1, Proverbs 8:27, Isaiah 40:12, Isaiah 40:22, Isaiah 44:24

as: Exodus 38:8

Reciprocal: Psalms 136:6 - General Isaiah 48:13 - my right hand hath spanned Isaiah 51:13 - that hath

Cross-References

Genesis 37:14
He said, "Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing and bring me back a report." He sent him off from the valley of Hebron to Shechem.
Genesis 37:15
A man met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
1 Samuel 19:1
Saul called his son Jonathan together with his servants and ordered them to kill David. But because Jonathan treasured David, he went and warned him: "My father is looking for a way to kill you. Here's what you are to do. Tomorrow morning, hide and stay hidden. I'll go out with my father into the field where you are hiding. I'll talk about you with my father and we'll see what he says. Then I'll report back to you."
Psalms 37:12
Bad guys have it in for the good guys, obsessed with doing them in. But God isn't losing any sleep; to him they're a joke with no punch line.
Psalms 37:32
Wicked sets a watch for Righteous, he's out for the kill. God , alert, is also on watch— Wicked won't hurt a hair of his head.
Matthew 21:38
"But when the farmhands saw the son arrive, they rubbed their hands in greed. ‘This is the heir! Let's kill him and have it all for ourselves.' They grabbed him, threw him out, and killed him.
Matthew 27:1
In the first light of dawn, all the high priests and religious leaders met and put the finishing touches on their plot to kill Jesus. Then they tied him up and paraded him to Pilate, the governor.
Mark 12:7
"But those farmhands saw their chance. They rubbed their hands together in greed and said, ‘This is the heir! Let's kill him and have it all for ourselves.' They grabbed him, killed him, and threw him over the fence.
Mark 14:1
In only two days the eight-day Festival of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread would begin. The high priests and religion scholars were looking for a way they could seize Jesus by stealth and kill him. They agreed that it should not be done during Passover Week. "We don't want the crowds up in arms," they said.
John 11:53
From that day on, they plotted to kill him. So Jesus no longer went out in public among the Jews. He withdrew into the country bordering the desert to a town called Ephraim and secluded himself there with his disciples.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Hast thou with him spread out the sky?.... Wast thou concerned with him at the first spreading out of the sky? wast thou an assistant to him in it? did he not spread it as a curtain or canopy about himself, without the help of another? verily he did; see Job 9:8

Isaiah 44:24;

[which] is strong: for though it seems a fluid and thin, is very firm and strong, as appears by what it bears, and are contained in it; and therefore is called "the firmament of his power", Psalms 150:1;

[and] as a molten looking glass; clear and transparent, like the looking glasses of the women, made of molten brass, Exodus 38:8; and firm and permanent u; and a glass this is in which the glory of God, and his divine perfections, is to be seen; and is one of the wondrous works of God, made for the display of his own glory, and the benefit of men, Psalms 19:1. Or this may respect the spreading out a clear serene sky, and smoothing it after it has been covered and ruffled with storms and tempests; which is such a wonderful work of God, that man has no hand in.

u χαλκεος ουρανος. Pindar. Nem. Ode 6.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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, Isaiah 40:22); sometimes as a “firmament,” or a solid body spread out (Septuagint, Genesis 1:6-7); sometimes as a fixture in which the stars are placed (Notes, Isaiah 34:4), and sometimes as a scroll that may be rolled up, or as a garment, Psalms 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 Isaiah 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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 37:18. 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.


 
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