when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
Parallel translations
- WEB marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,
- KJV And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
- NKJV When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors;
- NASB And I placed boundaries on it And set a bolt and doors,
- NLT For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God set fixed boundaries for the sea, with bars and doors to hold it in. The ocean's limits are decreed by divine command.
Overview
The LORD speaks of establishing prescribed bounds for the sea, like a gate that cannot be passed. This continues the theme of God ordering chaos into a stable world. It assures the reader that the powers that seem to threaten life are firmly leashed by God's word.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Jer 5:22Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.
- Ps 104:9You set a boundary they cannot cross, that they may never again cover the earth.
- Job 26:10He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
- Ps 33:7He piles up the waters of the sea; He puts the depths into storehouses.
- Gen 1:9–10And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.
- Gen 9:15I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 38:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.