By the breath of God ice is given depicts ice as being formed by God’s breath. In this case the cold north wind of verse 9b is pictured as the breath of God. And the broad waters are frozen fast translates “and the expanse of waters with narrowness.” The word rendered are frozen fast may come from either of two Hebrew verbs. The one is “narrows,” as suggested by the literal rendering. The other is used of a molten metal becoming a solid mass. It is the latter sense which applies here, as in Good News Translation, “turns to solid ice.” Good News Translation has shifted “waters” to line a. However, we may translate as in Bible en français courant, “God breathes, and the ice takes form; the surface of the water hardens like metal.” In some languages ice is unknown and is expressed, if at all, with a borrowed word. In some cases it will be preferable to speak of the degree of cold; for example, “The breath of God blows so cold that the water becomes hard as metal.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .