I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come. 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?
- BSB and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?
- 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’?
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 pride of the sea. When its waves rise up, you calm them.
- Prov 8:29when he gave to the sea its boundary, that the waters should not violate his commandment, when he marked out the foundations of the earth;
- Mark 4:39–41He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
- Ps 65:6–7Who by his power forms the mountains, having armed yourself with strength;
- Luke 8:32–33Now there was there a herd of many pigs feeding on the mountain, and they begged him that he would allow them to enter into those. He allowed them.
- Isa 27:8In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.
- Ps 93:3–4The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.
- Job 2:6Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.”
- Job 1:22In all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.
- Ps 76:10Surely the wrath of man praises you. The survivors of your wrath are restrained.
- Rev 20:2–3He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,
- Rev 20:7–8And after the thousand years, 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.