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Job

About this book
Chapter 37

1 At this also my heart pounds and leaps from its place. 2 Listen carefully to the thunder of his voice, to the rumbling that proceeds from his mouth.⁠ 3 Under the whole heaven he lets it go, even his lightning to the far corners of the earth. 4 After that a voice roars; he thunders with an exalted voice, and he does not hold back his lightning bolts when his voice is heard. 5 God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. 6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall to earth,’ and to the torrential rains, ‘Pour down.’ 7 He causes everyone to stop working, so that all people may know his work. 8 The wild animals go to their lairs, and in their dens they remain. 9 A tempest blows out from its chamber, icy cold from the driving winds. 10 The breath of God produces ice, and the breadth of the waters freeze solid. 11 He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through the clouds.⁠ 12 The clouds go round in circles, wheeling about according to his plans, to carry out all that he commands them over the face of the whole inhabited world. 13 Whether it is for punishment, or for his land, or for mercy, he causes it to find its mark. 14 “Pay attention to this, Job! Stand still and consider the wonders God works.⁠ 15 Do you know how God commands them, how he makes lightning flash in his storm cloud? 16 Do you know about the balancing of the clouds, that wondrous activity of him who is perfect in knowledge? 17 You, whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind, 18 will you, with him, spread out the sky, solid as a mirror of molten metal?⁠ 19 Tell us what we should say to him. We cannot prepare a case because of the darkness. 20 Should he be informed that I want to speak? If a man speaks, surely he will be swallowed up! 21 But now, the sun cannot be looked at—it is bright in the skies—after a wind passed and swept the clouds away. 22 From the north he comes in golden splendor; around God is awesome majesty. 23 As for the Almighty, we cannot attain to him! He is great in power, but justice and abundant righteousness he does not oppress. 24 Therefore people fear him, for he does not regard all the wise in heart.”

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 1:7 and Job 37:18

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Summary

Job 37 describes the sky spread out like solid metal, using metalworking language to describe the heavens as a solid, hammered surface like a dome. Similar language is used in Genesis 1, where God creates the solid firmament to separate the waters.

Passages

Genesis 1:7

Hebrew Bible
6 God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. It was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” There was evening, and there was morning, a second day.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Job 37:18

Hebrew Bible
16 Do you know about the balancing of the clouds, that wondrous activity of him who is perfect in knowledge? 17 You, whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind, 18 will you, with him, spread out the sky, solid as a mirror of molten metal? 19 Tell us what we should say to him. We cannot prepare a case because of the darkness. 20 Should he be informed that I want to speak? If a man speaks, surely he will be swallowed up!
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

References

"... the word raqia in Genesis 1:6–7, often translated “firmament,” stands in parallelism with “the heavens” in Psalm 19:1. In Psalm 150:1 the same word is parallel to “his holy place” and in apposition to “his strong place.” From these comparisons, the firmament is located in the heavens, and it is the site of divine enthronement in the heavens. The root appears in a verbal form in Job 37:18: “Can you, like him [God], spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?” (see Isaiah 44:24 for the same root in another creation allusion). The translation of the verb translated “to spread out” in this context is rendered to “stretch out” in NJPS. The D-stem of the verb is taken to refer to beating or hammering out metal plates (Exodus 39:3, Numbers 17:4, Isaiah 40:19). The context of Job 37:18 likewise suggests the activity of metal work, perhaps with the specific sense of the word as “molten,” translated as “cast metal” in NJPS. This root (yṣq) denotes pouring casting liquid metal in casts. The verb applies to the pouring of molten metals for the materials of the tabernacle conducted by the craftsman Bezalel (Exodus 25:12 and 37:3) and for furniture made by Kothar in the Baal Cycle ..."
Mark S. Smith, The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2010), 325.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 1:7 and Job 37:18

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