Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror?
Elihu is finishing his speech to Job. His last argument is a question about the sky: Job has been telling God how to handle his case, so did Job help spread out the dome overhead?
The Picture Behind the Word "Mirror"
The comparison rests on an everyday object. Mirrors then were not glass but polished bronze. One reference work traces the Hebrew word behind it:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThough glass was known to the Egyptians, it does not appear to be mentioned in the Old Testament. Exodus 38:8 says plainly that the basin was made of bronze from the women's looking glasses. So bronze mirrors were in use then. The root of the Hebrew word marah is raah, to see. In Job 37:18 it is from the same root, where the sky is compared to a cast metal mirror.
So the sky is pictured as beaten metal — solid, gleaming, and strong. It looks like empty air, yet the verse calls it as hard as cast bronze.
A Question With Only One Answer
Elihu is not asking for information. He asks whether Job helped God spread out that strong sky, and both men know the answer is no.
Leslie M. GrantAgain, had God required Job's help in spreading out the skies, strong as a cast metal mirror? (v.18). The skies are just one more example of the miraculous power of God, by which He seeks to turn our eyes heavenward while taking the place of total submission to One who is so high above us.
The End of a Chain of Unanswerable Questions
This verse closes a run of questions about the balancing of the clouds and the scorching heat that comes from the south wind. Job could feel all of it, but feeling is not understanding.
William KellyDid he know anything about the balancing of the clouds? Did he know the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge, who gives the earth rest from the south wind, so that everything turns to scorching heat? Man can feel, but can he explain? Had Job, with God, spread out the skies, strong as a cast metal mirror? If so, he could tell us what we should say to Him. Otherwise we cannot set anything in order because of darkness.
Notice the logic. Only a maker of the sky could tell us how to address its Maker. Job had no share in that work, so he has nothing to teach us here.
Why the Argument Runs Through Creation
Why point at the sky and not at something deeper? One writer answers that this was a very early stage in God's dealings with people.
William KellyJob 37 finally turns our eyes to the wondrous works of God in the outward world. These, I admit, fall very far short of the depth of truth that the doctrine of Christ or His grace gives. It is not the unseen, but the visible. Here we can understand that we are in the infant days of even God's saints. They spelled out the vast letters of heaven and earth, seen before the Scriptures were read. Christ was not here, and for that very reason the outward world serves to show God's majesty, faithfulness, and gracious power in all that surrounded man.
The Response the Question Aims At
Elihu does not stand at a safe distance from his own question. He counts himself among the small, and the sky overhead shuts his mouth first.
Samuel RidoutWho or what is Job, but a frail man whose clothes oppress him in the blast of the desert wind? Can he spread out the expanse which arches over our heads like a shining mirror? As he goes on, Elihu himself becomes spokesman for all the lowly. We have undertaken to speak, we who are but dust and ashes. "We cannot set our case in order because of darkness." Let us hush our voices and listen to Him!
That is where Job ends up when God speaks.
Leslie M. Grant"Should He be told that I wish to speak?" (v.20). Job had indicated this in chapter 23:3-4, saying he would present his case to God, filling his mouth with arguments. Did he do so when God finally spoke to him? No indeed! Rather, he said, "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth" (ch. 40:3-4).
Summary
- Mirror. Elihu compares the sky to a bronze mirror: beaten, polished metal, solid and gleaming.
- Maker. God needed no help to spread it out. Job had no part in the work he dared to criticise.
- Ignorance. Job could feel the heat, but he could not explain it. Feeling is not understanding, and a critic of God would need understanding.
- Infancy. Creation is the argument here because Christ had not yet come. The visible world was God's language before there was Scripture to read.
- Silence. The aim is a hushed voice. Elihu counts himself dust and ashes, and Job lays his hand over his mouth when God speaks.