Bible Strands
Job 37:18
can you, like Him, spread out the skies, as strong as a mirror of bronze?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses Job during a discourse on atmospheric phenomena, following a description of the south wind’s heat and preceding an invitation to present a case before God. The words — תַּרְקִיעַ (tar.Ki.a') means "will you spread out," and מוּצָק (mu.Tzak) denotes "molten," together describing the act of forging the sky. The thread — The motif of divine sky-stretching appears in Isaiah 44:24 and Psalms 104:2, while the bronze mirror imagery echoes the polished mirrors used in Exodus 38:8. Why it lands — The verse demands a direct assessment of human capacity against divine creative power, leaving no room for self-reliance in understanding cosmic order.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
Cross-references
- Isaiah 44:24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,
- Psalms 104:2 He wraps Himself in light as with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a tent,
- Exodus 38:8 Next he made the bronze basin and its stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
- Isaiah 40:22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; its dwellers are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
- Genesis 1:6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, to separate the waters from the waters.”
- Job 9:8 He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.
- Psalms 148:4 Praise Him, O highest heavens, and you waters above the skies.
- Psalms 150:1 Hallelujah! Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens.
- Proverbs 8:27 I was there when He established the heavens, when He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,
- Isaiah 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills with a balance?