marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,
Parallel translations
- KJV And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
- BSB when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its 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 5:22Don’t you fear me?’ says Yahweh ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? and though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail; though they roar, yet they can’t pass over it.’
- Ps 104:9You have set a boundary that they may not pass over; that they don’t turn again to cover the earth.
- Job 26:10He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness.
- Ps 33:7He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses.
- Gen 1:9–10God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
- Gen 9:15and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.