Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
Parallel translations
- WEB “Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,
- KJV Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
- NKJV “Orwho shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
- NASB ¶“Or who enclosed the sea with doors When it went out from the womb, bursting forth;
- NLT “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb,
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 asks who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth as from a womb. He alone set bounds on the mighty deep.
Overview
The LORD turns from the earth to the sea, often a biblical symbol of chaos. He pictures the ocean as a newborn that God contained and controlled from its first eruption. This affirms that even the most untamable forces are subject to God's sovereign limits.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Gen 1:9And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.
- 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.
- 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.
- Ps 104:8–9the mountains rose and the valleys sank to the place You assigned for them—
- Ps 33:7He piles up the waters of the sea; He puts the depths into storehouses.
- Job 38:10when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
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 38:8 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.