New International Version
Job 38:8
8“Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
Job 38:8 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
- English Standard Version (ESV)"Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb,
- New King James Version (NKJV)“Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
- New Living Translation (NLT)“Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb,
Context of Job 38:8
6On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— 7while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,
Read all of Job 38Job 38:8 word by word
וַיָּ֣סֶךְ בִּדְלָתַ֣יִם יָ֑ם בְּ֝גִיח֗וֹ מֵרֶ֥חֶם יֵצֵֽא׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 38:8
- Job 38:10when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,
- Genesis 1:9And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.
- Psalms 33:7He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses.
- Psalms 104:9You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth.
- Proverbs 8:29when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
- Jeremiah 5:22Should you not fear me?” declares the Lord. “Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
- Job 38:29From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
Commentaries on Job 38:8
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 8Who shut up the sea with doors - Who gathered the waters together into one place, and fixed the sea its limits, so that it cannot overpass them to inundate the earth? When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? - This is a very fine metaphor. The sea is represented as a newly born infant issuing from the womb of the void and formless chaos; and the delicate circumstance of the liquor amnii, which bursts out previously to the birth of the…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 8Or who shut up the sea with doors - This refers also to the act of the creation, and to the fact that God fixed limits to the raging of the ocean. The word “doors” is used here rather to denote gates, such as are made to shut up water in a dam. The Hebrew word properly refers, in the dual form which is used here דלתים delethiym ), to “double doors,” or to folding doors, and is also applied to the gates of a city; Deuteronomy 3:5; 1 Samuel 23:7; Isaiah…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 4-11Verses 4-11 For the humbling of Job, God here shows him his ignorance, even concerning the earth and the sea. As we cannot find fault with God's work, so we need not fear concerning it. The works of his providence, as well as the work of creation, never can be broken; and the work of redemption is no less firm, of which Christ himself is both the Foundation and the Corner-stone. The church stands as firm as the earth.Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-41God challenges Job. Job admits he cannot judge the moral world. God shows Job's ignorance of the natural world's elements related to the realm of heaven, weather, animals, and birds (38:4–21; 22–38; 39–39:30).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 88. doors--floodgates; these when opened caused the flood (Ge 8:2); or else, the shores. womb--of chaos. The bowels of the earth. Image from childbirth (Job 38:8, 9; Eze 32:2; Mi 4:10). Ocean at its birth was wrapped in clouds as its swaddling bands.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 38:8
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 38
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
New International Version — © NIV® 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica
Commentaries