Bible Strands
Job 38:29
From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks to Job from the whirlwind, continuing His series of rhetorical questions about the origins of natural phenomena.
The words — בֶּ֣טֶן (beten) means womb, and יְלָדֽ/וֹ (yelaDo) means to give birth to, framing ice and frost as offspring rather than inert matter.
The thread — This reproductive language for weather runs alongside God scattering frost like ashes (Psalms 147:16) and forming ice by His breath (Job 37:10), while Job 6:16 later describes melting snow darkening streams.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to concede that human beings lack the authority and knowledge to command or fully explain atmospheric processes.
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
Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
Cross-references
- Psalms 147:16 He spreads the snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;
- Job 37:10 By the breath of God the ice is formed and the watery expanses are frozen.
- Job 6:16 darkened because of the ice and the inflow of melting snow,
- Job 38:8 Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,