John Chrysostom

God does not want to say that it comes out from his womb, God forbid! But then what do the words about "begetting" and "womb" mean in this context? As when the author said about the sea, "When its mother begot it," he did not mean that it has a mother; so here he does not mean that [ice] came forth [literally] from God's womb, but he wants to speak about its formation and origin.… Why then did he constantly use here the words about "begetting"? In my opinion he wants to allude to the One who is the first and only cause of everything and to the fact that creatures were shaped even before being completely perfected.