Can you, with him, spread out the sky, which is strong as a cast metal mirror?
The sky is a solid, rigid structure — as hard and polished as a cast metal mirror.
Astronomy
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The cited passage
What current science says
The atmosphere is a gas, not a solid. It has no rigid structure, no surface you can knock on, and no reflective metallic properties. Ancient people looked up and saw a blue dome and reasonably concluded it was a solid surface — but we've known better since at least the 17th century. Felix Baumgartner fell through 39 km of atmosphere in 2012 without hitting anything solid on the way down. If the sky were a metal mirror, every airplane would have crashed on its first flight.
What the text says
This comes from Job 37:18. The text asks if you can 'spread out the sky, hard as a cast metal mirror' — describing the firmament as a literal solid dome, strong and reflective like polished bronze.
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.