Job - 38:30



30 The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Job 38:30.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
The waters are hardened like a stone, and the surface of the deep is congealed.
When the waters lie hidden as in stone, and the face of the deep holdeth fast together.
The waters are hidden as with stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
As a stone waters are hidden, And the face of the deep is captured.
The waters are joined together, hard as a stone, and the face of the deep is covered.
The waters are congealed like stone, And the face of the deep is frozen.
The waters are hardened to become like stone, and the surface of the abyss freezes over.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

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 (יתלכדוּ yitlâkadû); 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.

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 יתחבאו 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.

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.

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.

The unfrozen waters are hid under the frozen, as with a covering of stone.
frozen--literally, "is taken"; the particles take hold of one another so as to cohere.

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