Job 38:29

Even the wild asses shall have their thirst quenched, Ps. civ. 11. God has enough for all, and wonderfully provides even for those creatures that man neither has service from nor makes provision for. (4.) He is, in a sense, the Father of the rain, v. 28. It has no other father. He produces it by his power; he governs and directs it, and makes what use he pleases of it. Even the small drops of the dew he distils upon the earth, as the God of nature; and, as the God of grace, he rains righteousness upon us and is himself as the dew unto Israel. See Hos. xiv. 5, 6; Mic. v. 7. (5.) The ice and the frost, by which the waters are congealed and the earth incrustrated, are produced by his providence, v. 29, 30. These are very common things, which lessens the strangeness of them. But, considering what a vast change is made by them in a very little time, how the waters are hid as with a stone, as with a grave-stone, laid upon them (so thick, so strong, is the ice that covers them), and the face even of the deep is sometimes frozen, we may well ask, "Out of whose womb came the ice? What created power could produce such a wonderful work?" No power but that of the Creator himself. Frost and snow come from him, and therefore should lead our thoughts and meditations to him who does such great things, past finding out. And we shall the more easily bear the inconveniences of winter-weather if we learn to make this good use of it. 2. How weak man is. Can he do such things as these? Could Job?

38:25-41 Hitherto God had put questions to Job to show him his ignorance; now God shows his weakness. As it is but little that he knows, he ought not to arraign the Divine counsels; it is but little he can do, therefore he ought not to oppose the ways of Providence. See the all-sufficiency of the Divine Providence; it has wherewithal to satisfy the desire of every living thing. And he that takes care of the young ravens, certainly will not be wanting to his people. This being but one instance of the Divine compassion out of many, gives us occasion to think how much good our God does, every day, beyond what we are aware of. Every view we take of his infinite perfections, should remind us of his right to our love, the evil of sinning against him, and our need of his mercy and salvation.

Out of whose womb came the ice?.... The parent of the rain and dew is the parent of the ice also, and he only; it is therefore called "his ice", his child, his offspring, Psalm 147:17 . Here the Lord is represented as a mother, and so he is by Orpheus (b) called "metropator", or "mother-father"; and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? this is of God, and by his breath; see Job 37:10. (b) Apud Clement. Stromat. l. 5. p. 608.

Verse 29. - Out of whose womb came the ice? Modern scientists admit that the process by which a liquid is metamorphosed into a solid transcends their utmost power of thought. They know nothing more than the fact that at the temperature of 32° Fahr. water, and at other temperatures other liquids, are solidified (see an article by Professor Tyndall on the generation of a snowflake in the Contemporary Review of 1880). It is thus not only creation itself, but the transformations of created things, that transcend the scientific intellect and are inexplicable. And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? This is the same question as that of the previous clause, expressed in different words Job 38:29

What man either can produce them, or doth fully understand where or how they are engendered? For philosophers speak of these things only by guess, and the reasons which some assign for them are confuted by others; and so they will confute one another to the end of the world, and prove nothing solidly but their own ignorance and the reasonableness of these questions.

Out of whose womb came the ice? - That is, who has caused or produced it? The idea is, that it was not by any human agency, or in any known way by which living beings were propagated. And the hoary frost of heaven - Which seems to fall from heaven. The sense is, that it is caused wholly by God; see the notes at Job 37:10.

28 Hath the rain a father, Or who begetteth the drops of dew? 29 Out of whose womb cometh the ice forth, And who bringeth forth the hoar-frost of heaven? 30 The waters become hard like stone, And the face of the deep is rolled together. Rain and dew have no created father, ice and hoar-frost no created mother. The parallelism in both instances shows that מי הוליד asks after the one who begets, and מי ילדו the one who bears (vid., Hupfeld on Psalm 2:7). בּטן is uterus, and meton. (at least in Arabic) progenies uteri; ex utero cujus is מבטן מי, in distinction from מאי־זה בטן, ex quo utero. אגלי־טל is excellently translated by the lxx, Codd. Vat. and Sin., βώλους (with Omega) δρόσου; Ges. and Schlottm. correct to βόλους, but βῶλος signifies not merely a clod, but also a lump and a ball. It is the particles of the dew holding together (lxx, Cod. Alex.: συνοχὰς καὶ βω. δρ.) in a globular form, from אגל, which does not belong to גּלל, but to Arab. 'jil, retinere, II colligere (whence agı̂l, standing water, ma'‛gal, a pool, pond); אגלי is constr., like עגלי from עגל. The waters "hide themselves," by vanishing as fluid, therefore: freeze. The surface of the deep (lxx ἀσεβοῦς, for which Zwingli has in marg. ἀβύσσου) "takes hold of itself," or presses together (comp. Arab. lekda, crowding, synon. hugûm, a striking against) by forming itself into a firm solid mass (continuum, Job 41:9, comp. Job 37:10).

[Bible] 38:9. When I made a cloud the garment thereof, and wrapped it in a mist as in swaddling bands? 38:10. I set my bounds around it, and made it bars and doors: 38:11. And I said: Hitherto thou shalt come, and shalt go no further, and here thou shalt break thy swelling waves. 38:12. Didst thou since thy birth command the morning, and shew the dawning of the day its place? 38:13. And didst thou hold the extremities of the earth shaking them, and hast thou shaken the ungodly out of it? 38:14. The seal shall be restored as clay, and shall stand as a garment. 38:15. From the wicked their light shall be taken away, and the high arm shall be broken. 38:16. Hast thou entered into the depths of the sea, and walked in the lowest parts of the deep? 38:17. Have the gates of death been opened to thee, and hast thou seen the darksome doors? 38:18. Hast thou considered the breadth of the earth? tell me, if thou knowest all things? 38:19. Where is the way where light dwelleth, and where is the place of darkness? 38:20. That thou mayst bring every thing to its own bounds, and understand the paths of the house thereof. 38:21. Didst thou know then that thou shouldst be born? and didst thou know the number of thy days? 38:22. Hast thou entered into the storehouses of the snow, or hast thou beheld the treasures of the hail: 38:23. Which I have prepared for the time of the enemy, against the day of battle and war? 38:24. By what way is the light spread, and heat divided upon the earth? 38:25. Who gave a course to violent showers, or a way for noisy thunder: 38:26. That it should rain on the earth without man in the wilderness, where no mortal dwelleth: 38:27. That it should fill the desert and desolate land, and should bring forth green grass? 38:28. Who is the father of rain? or who begot the drops of dew? 38:29. Out of whose womb came the ice? and the frost from heaven who hath gendered it? 38:30. The waters are hardened like a stone, and the surface of the deep is congealed.