Have you with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten mirror?
Read Chapter 37
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Brass. Hebrew, "Hast thou with him stretched out (or beaten, as brass, tarkiang; which word Moses uses for the firmament) the heavens, which are as solid (Chaldean, and like) a molten looking-glass? "which was formerly made of metal, Exodus xxxviii. 8. The Hebrews looked upon the sky as a sheet of brass; and the poets speak of the brazen heaven. (Pindar. Nem. vi.; Homer, Iliad A.)
65. By ‘heavens,’ those who are created in the heavens, the angelic spirits, can be designated. Whence also we are instructed by the voice of Truth to say in our Prayer, Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. [Matt. 6, 10] That the will of God may be doubtless observed in all things even by human infirmity, as it is done by the higher creation. Of whom it is well said, They are most solid, as if cast in brass. For it is of the nature of brass, that it is difficult to be consumed by rust. And the angelic powers, which stood fixed in Divine love, when the proud angels fell, received this, as their reward of retribution, that they are no longer consumed by any rust of sin stealing upon them, that they continue in the contemplation of their Creator, without end to their felicity, and exist with eternal stability, in that which they were created. Which the very words of the history in Moses concerning the origin of the world will attest, when both the heaven is said to have been first ...
Here he may mean, You are now in the midst of afflictions, but later you will have rest—and there is also the proof given by divine wisdom, which has foreseen death as a solution and end to human tribulations. Or perhaps [he means], even in the midst of your trials, you remain out of the fight of the war and the troubles, and he punishes you in this manner. - "Commentary on Job 37.17"
