By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened.

JOB 37:10KJV
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Job 37:10 (KJV)

What does Job 37:10 mean?

Job 37:10 says that God’s breath brings frost and that the wide waters become restricted or frozen. The verse points to God’s direct control over nature, showing that even the cold and the freezing of water are under His command.

In the book of Job, Elihu is speaking to Job and his friends, describing how powerful and sovereign God is over creation. Elihu uses the example of frost and frozen waters to illustrate that natural events—like the coming of winter—are not random but happen by God’s will. This helps underline the idea that humans cannot fully grasp or control the forces of nature, which are in God’s hands.

The Hebrew behind Job 37:10

  • "breath" (נְשָׁמָה, neshamah): This word often means "breath" or "spirit." Here, it pictures God’s breath as the force that brings about frost, emphasizing a personal, direct action rather than a distant cause.
  • "frost" (קָרַח, qarach): This word means "frost" or "ice." The verse credits God with giving frost, highlighting that even something as simple as cold weather is attributed to Him.
  • "breadth" (רֹחַב, rochav): This word means "width" or "expanse." The verse says the "breadth of the waters is straitened," meaning wide waters are made narrow or restricted, likely by freezing.
  • "straitened" (מוּצָק, mutsaq): This word carries the sense of being confined, bound, or solidified. It suggests that the waters are not just narrowed but actually bound up or frozen solid.

Why Job 37:10 matters

  • Job 37:10 clears up the idea that natural events like frost or freezing are simply random or automatic; the verse emphasizes that these are acts of God’s will and power.
  • The verse fits into Elihu’s larger speech about God’s greatness and the limits of human understanding, reminding Job and his friends that God’s ways in nature are beyond human control.
  • By focusing on God’s control over even the cold and ice, Job 37:10 helps the reader see that nothing in creation is outside God’s authority, reinforcing the book’s theme of God’s sovereignty.

Where else these words appear

“straitened” Hebrew H4164 · used in 3 verses

  • Job 36:16 Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.
  • Isaiah 9:1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.

“frost” Hebrew H7140 · used in 7 verses

  • Genesis 31:40 Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.
  • Job 38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
  • Jeremiah 36:30 Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.

“breath” Hebrew H5397 · used in 24 verses

  • Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
  • 1 Kings 15:29 And it came to pass, when he reigned, that he smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according unto the saying of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite:
  • Psalms 18:15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

“breadth” Hebrew H7341 · used in 89 verses

  • Genesis 6:15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
  • 1 Kings 6:20 And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.
  • Ezekiel 41:3 Then went he inward, and measured the post of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits.