By the breath of God, ice is given, and the width of the waters is frozen.
Frost is formed by a powerful being exhaling cold breath onto the ground.
Meteorology
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The cited passage
What current science says
Frost forms through deposition — water vapor in the air transitions directly into ice crystals when surfaces cool below 0°C (32°F) and below the dew point. It's driven by radiative cooling: on clear nights, the ground loses heat to space and gets cold enough for water molecules in the air to freeze on contact. No breath required. The process is the same physics that makes your freezer frost up. We can predict frost formation with mathematical models down to the hour — no divine respiratory schedule needed.
What the text says
This comes from Job 37:10. 'By the breath of God frost is given' — the text attributes frost formation to divine exhalation rather than any natural atmospheric process.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.