and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?
Parallel translations
- WEB and said, ‘Here you may come, but no further. Here your proud waves shall be stayed?’
- KJV And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
- NKJV When I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!’
- NASB And I said, ‘As far as this point you shall come, but no farther; And here your proud waves shall stop’?
- NLT I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come. Here your proud waves must stop!’
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 commands the sea, 'This far you may come, but no further,' halting its proud waves. His word alone restrains the most powerful forces.
Overview
In a striking line, the LORD quotes his own decree limiting the sea's reach. The 'proud waves' must stop where God says. This sovereign word over the chaos waters reappears when Jesus stills the storm (Mark 4:39), revealing the Creator's authority present in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 89:9You rule the raging sea; when its waves mount up, You still them.
- Prov 8:29when He set a boundary for the sea, so that the waters would not surpass His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth.
- Mark 4:39–41Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. “Silence!” He commanded. “Be still!” And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm.
- Ps 65:6–7You formed the mountains by Your power, having girded Yourself with might.
- Luke 8:32–33There on the hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. So the demons begged Jesus to let them enter the pigs, and He gave them permission.
- Isa 27:8By warfare and exile You contended with her and removed her with a fierce wind, as on the day the east wind blows.
- Ps 93:3–4The floodwaters have risen, O LORD; the rivers have raised their voice; the seas lift up their pounding waves.
- Job 2:6“Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “He is in your hands, but you must spare his life.”
- Job 1:22In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.
- Ps 76:10Even the wrath of man shall praise You; with the survivors of wrath You will clothe Yourself.
- Rev 20:2–3He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
- Rev 20:7–8When the thousand years are complete, Satan will be released from his prison,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 38:11 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.