Job 37:18 - Exposition

Hast thou with him spread out the sky? Didst thou assist in the spreading out of the sky, that great and magnificent work of the Creator, transcending almost all others (see the comment on Job 9:8 )? Or did not God effect this work alone , without even a counsellor ( Isaiah 40:13 , Isaiah 40:14 ), so that thou hadst no part in it? Which is strong, and as a molten looking-glass. The sky is "strong" or "firm;" i.e. enduring or permanent, though not really hard like a mirror. Elihu, however, seems to have regarded it, like many of the ancients, as a solid mass, resembling a concave mirror of metal. The translation, "looking-glass," is wrong, both here and in Exodus 38:8 , since glass was not used for mirrors until the period of the early Roman empire. The earlier mirrors were of polished metal.