By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened.
Ver. 10. By the breath of God frost is given] Frost is the excess of cold by the blowing of the coldest winds, which are here called, "The breath of God"; these congeal the waters, and turn them into ice, contracting them into a narrower room. Hence it is, that as any country is more northerly, so it is colder; the sea also is frozen and impassable.
And the breadth of the waters is straitened] This the same again in other words, though some understand it to be hail; when the broad flowing water in the clouds by the force of the cold is narrowed up into hail. All this is of the Lord. Fides non in ordinem operis, sed in authorem oculos suos dirigit, saith Brentius upon the text; faith seeth God in all.