Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 38:30

The waters are hid as [with] a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

30. as with a stone ] lit. the waters hide themselves like a stone, that is, becoming like stone.

is frozen ] lit. cleaveth together. The phenomenon of ice, rare in the East, naturally appeared wonderful.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The waters are hid as with a stone – The solid ice is laid as a stone upon them, wholly concealing them from view.

And the face of the deep is frozen – Margin, taken. The idea is, they seem to take hold of one another ( yitlakadu); they hold together, or cohere. The formation of ice is thus appealed to as a proof of the wisdom of God, and as a thing which Job could not explain. No man could produce this effect; nor could Job explain how it was done.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 30. The waters are hid as with a stone] Here is a reference to freezing in the winter, as we may learn from some of the constellations mentioned below, which arise above our horizon, in the winter months.

The word yithchabbau is understood by the versions in general as implying hardening or congelation; and we know in some intense frosts the ice becomes as hard as a stone; and even the face of the deep-the very seas themselves, not only in the polar circles, but even in northern countries, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and parts of Germany, are really frozen, and locked up from all the purposes of navigation for several months in winter.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

As with a stone, i.e. with ice as hard as a stone.

The face of the deep, i.e. the great sea, which is oft called the deep, as Gen 7:11; Psa 107:24; Isa 51:10; 63:13; 2Co 11:25, which in some parts is frozen, which is a wonderful work of God.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

30. The unfrozen waters arehid under the frozen, as with a covering of stone.

frozenliterally, “istaken”; the particles take hold of one another so as to cohere.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

The waters are hid as [with] a stone,…. The surface of the waters by frost become as hard as a stone, and will bear great burdens, and admit of carriages to pass over them c where ships went before; so that the waters under them are hid and quite out of sight: an emblem of the hard heart of man, which can only be thawed by the power and grace of God, by the south wind of the Spirit blowing, and the “sun of righteousness” rising on it;

and the face of the deep is frozen; or bound together by the frost, as the Targum; it is taken, laid hold on, and kept together, as the word signifies, so that it cannot flow. Historians speak of seas being frozen up, as some parts of the Scythian sea, reported by Mela d, and the Cimmerian Bosphorus, by Herodotus e, and the northern seas by Olaus Magnus f; as that men might travel over them on foot or on horseback, from one country to another; and Strabo relates g, that where a sea fight has been in the summer time, armies and hosts have met and fought in the winter. In Muscovy the ice is to six and ten feet deep h; in the year 401 the Euxine sea i was frozen over for the space of twenty days; and in the year 763 the seas at Constantinople were frozen one hundred miles from the shore, so thick as to bear the heaviest carriages k.

c “Nunc hospita plaustris”, &c. Virg. Georgic. l. 3. v. 362. d De Situ Orbis, l. 3. c. 5. e Melpomene, sive, l. 4. c. 20. Vid. Macrob. Saturnal. l. 7. c. 12. f De Ritu Gent. Septent. l. 1. c. 13. g Geograph. l. 7. p. 211. Vid. Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 1. c. 22. h Scheuchzer. Phys. Sacr. vol 4. p. 810. i Universal History, vol. 16. p. 489. k Universal History, vol. 17. p. 45.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(30) The waters are hid.Or, The waters hide themselves and become like stone. Water loses its familiar quality, and is turned into stone.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

30. The waters are hid as with a stone The waters harden like stone. Thus Furst, etc. The root idea of is that of “hiding,” “concealing:” here used in the Hithpael it signifies “they hide themselves.” in other words, “congeal;” to which Umbreit gives the idea of “hiding under a stone.” The comparison to a stone is introduced rather to show the result of freezing, which is a hardness like that of stone, . The son of Sirach speaks of the cold north wind clothing the water as with a breastplate. Sir 43:20 .

Is frozen Cleaves together. See note on Job 37:10. The same word, , is used in Job 41:17 of the joining together of the scales of the leviathan. The face of the deep closes in together after the manner of the human face, (thus Hitzig,) whose lineaments constitute the countenance. Tyndall, in his treatise on “The Structure and Properties of Ice,” describes the transmission, in various directions, of sunbeams, condensed by a lens, through slabs of ice. “The path of every beam was observed to be instantly studded with lustrous spots, which increased in magnitude and number as the action continued. On examining the spots more closely they were found to be flattened spheroids, and around each of them the ice was so liquified as to form a beautiful flower-shaped figure possessing six petals. From this number there was no deviation. At first the edges of the liquid leaves were unindented; but a continuance of the action usually caused the edges to become serrated like those of ferns.” In his work on “Forms of Water,” (pp. 35-38.) the same author says, “In all cases the flowers are formed parallel to the surface of freezing. They are formed when the sun shines upon the ice of every lake; sometimes in myriads, and so small as to require a magnifying glass to see them. Here we have a reversal of the process of crystallization In this exquisite way every bit of the ice over which our skaters glide in winter is put together.”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 38:30. The waters are hid as with a stone How do the waters harden like a stone? and the face of the waters, how is it congealed? Houb.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Job 38:30 The waters are hid as [with] a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

Ver. 30. The waters are hid as with a stone ] This is a further description of ice, which is hard as a stone and clear as crystal; so great is the force of frost; how much more, then, of God to do whatsoever he pleaseth.

And the face of the deep is frozen ] Some deep rivers are ice to the bottom, so that loaden carts are driven over, fires made upon them, meat dressed, &c., as was here upon the Thames in the great frost, some forty-five years since, Quae aquae magno et diuturno frigore congelescunt, velut per 10 vel 20 annos continuos appellantur crystallus, velut in Alpibus. Yea, some seas are frozen over (Juvenal speaks of the icy ocean, et glacialem Oceanum ) in the northern part of the world, the ice thereof, when once thawed, floateth in the waters like huge mountains, as in Greenland.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

the face: Job 37:10

frozen: Heb. taken

Reciprocal: Job 41:32 – deep Psa 147:17 – who can stand

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

38:30 The waters are hid {p} as [with] a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

(p) The ice covers it, as though it were paved with stone.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes