Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that You must keep me under guard?
Parallel translations
- WEB Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?
- KJV Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?
- NKJV Am I a sea, or a sea serpent, That You set a guard over me?
- NASB “Am I the sea, or the sea monster, That You set a guard over me?
- NLT Am I a sea monster or a dragon that you must place me under guard?
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
Job asks whether he is some chaotic sea or sea-monster that God must keep under constant guard. He feels unjustly treated like a threat to be contained.
Overview
In the ancient Near East the sea and its monsters symbolized chaos that God restrains. Job ironically asks if he is so dangerous that God must watch him so closely. The complaint highlights Job's bewilderment at the intensity of God's attention to him in suffering, a mystery the book will address by God's own self-revelation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Job 38:6–11On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone,
- Ezek 32:2–3“Son of man, take up a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You are like a lion among the nations; you are like a monster in the seas. You thrash about in your rivers, churning up the waters with your feet and muddying the streams.’
- Lam 3:7He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
- Job 7:17What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him,
- Job 41:1–34“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 7:12 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.