Job 38:10
in Job 38when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And marked out for it my bound, And set bars and doors,
KJV
And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
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This verse in Job 38
Commentary
12 notes on this verseAnd brake up for it my decreed place - This refers to the decree, Gen 1:9: “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place.” And set bars and doors - And let the dry land appear. This formed the bars and doors of the sea; the land being everywhere a barrier against the encroachments and inundations of the sea; and great rivers, bays, creeks, etc., the doors by which it passes into the interior of continents, etc.
This site's exposition
Who enclosed the sea behind doors
on Job 38:8-11
“Who enclosed the sea behind doors” pictures the ocean born like a child that “burst forth from the womb”. The words “You may come this far, but no farther” set the shoreline as a standing order. Henry reads the image as a restraint God keeps where creatures cannot see it.
This site's exposition
set in place its bars and doors
Adam Clarke traces these boundaries to the decree of Genesis 1:9, when the waters were gathered into one place and dry land appeared. The land became the bars, and rivers and bays the doors. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that the Greek word for shore means a broken place.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
He keeps [the sea] firmly within a sort of barrier, and in some perfect prescriptions of docility, as if he had given it precise commands. I have spoken, he says, and it did not reply, because that happens not only when no constraint forces it but also if the violence of an unchained power whips it quite hard. God has not allowed the sea to stand still and calm, in order that it may proclaim his power, because its nature fights against his commandments, and his commandment rules it everywhere. If water stood still, many people would have attributed its tranquility to the nature of the water; but since, in reality, it is restless and rises from inside, but without the strength to exceed its limits, its restlessness proclaims the power of God.
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIII · Written before 604.
proposed
I surrounded it with My boundaries. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION The Lord surrounds the sea with His boundaries, because He so restricts the wrath of persecutors by the dispensation of His judgments, that the swelling wave of their mad wrath is broken on the level shore of His secret dispensation.
After he posits these things which express the primordial production of the sea, he explains his conclusion as if he said: When the sea was newly made, then, "I surrounded it with my limits." He posits three things which pertain to the boundary of the …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And brake up for it my decreed place,....
And it is said to it, by way of check to its insolence, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further. The sea is God's for he made it, he restrains it; he says to it, Here shall thy proud waves be stayed,
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
As for the sea, so for every one of us, there is a decreed place; for he that determined the times before appointed determined also the bounds of our habitation. This babe being made unruly and dangerous by the sin of man, which was the original of all unquietness and danger in this lower world, there is also a prison provided for it; bars and doors are set,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
brake up for--that is, appointed it. Shores are generally broken and abrupt cliffs. The Greek for "shore" means "a broken place." I broke off or measured off for it my limit, that is, the limit which I thought fit (Job 26:10).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
And brake up for it my decreed place - Margin, “established my decree upon it.” So Herder, “I fixed my decrees upon it.” Luther renders it, “Da ich ihm den Lauf brach mit meinem Damm” - “then I broke its course with my barrier.” Umbreit renders it, “I measured out to it my limits;” that is, the limits or bounds which I judged to be proper. So the Vulgate, “Circumdedi illud terminis meis” - “I surrounded it with my limits,” or with such limits as I chose to affix. The Septuagint renders it, “I placed boundaries to it.” Coverdale, “I gave it my commandment.” This is undoubtedly the sense which: the connection demands; and the idea in the common version, that God had broken up his fixed plans in order to accommodate the new-born ocean, is not in accordance with the parallelism. The Hebrew word (שׁבר shâbar) indeed commonly means “to break, to break in pieces.” But, according to Gesenius, and as the place here demands, it may have the sense of measuring off, defining, appointing, “from the idea of breaking into portions;” and then the sense will be, “I measured for it (the sea) my appointed bound.” This meaning of the word is, however, more probably derived from the Arabic, where the word שׁבר shâbar means to measure with the span (Castell), and hence, the idea here of measuring out the limits of the ocean. The sense is, that God measured out or determined the limits of the sea. The idea of breaking up a limit or boundary which had been before fixed, it is believed, is not in the text. The word rendered “my decreed place” (חקי chuqiy) refers commonly to a law, statute, or ordinance, meaning originally anything that was “engraved” (חקק châqaq) and then, because laws were engraved on tablets of brass or stone, any statute or decree. […]
Modern Voices1 voice
But there is another quarrel involved in which the young gentleman of culture comes into violent collision with the young lady of the cauliflowers. The first essential of the merely bookish view of the sea is that it is boundless, and gives a sentiment of …
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
and broke I made breaks in it [the sea] all around to keep it back within them, and they are its boundary, which it shall not pass, as in (Joshua:5), “and they pursued them until the quarries (השברים)” which are the ditches around the city.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וָאֶשְׁבֹּ֣ר | vaeshbor | and I broke | H7665 → | 147 times |
| עָלָ֣יו | ʾalav | on it | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| חֻקִּ֑י | chuki | boundary my | H2706 → | 127 times |
| וָֽ֝אָשִׂ֗ים | vaasim | and I set in place | H7760 → | 584 times |
| בְּרִ֣יחַ | beriach | a bar | H1280 → | |
| וּדְלָתָֽיִם׃ | udelatayim | and doors | H1817 → | 88 times |
וָאֶשְׁבֹּ֣רand I broke
vaeshborH7665 →147 times
עָלָ֣יוon it
ʾalavH5921 →5755 times
חֻקִּ֑יboundary my
chukiH2706 →127 times
וָֽ֝אָשִׂ֗יםand I set in place
vaasimH7760 →584 times
בְּרִ֣יחַa bar
beriachH1280 →
וּדְלָתָֽיִם׃and doors
udelatayimH1817 →88 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 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…
it leads to
- Job 38:10–11
when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 26:10
He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 104:9
You set a boundary they cannot cross, that they may never again cover the earth.
- Psalms 119:120
My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.
- Deuteronomy 28:58
If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God—
- Job 38:10–11
Through
Job 26:10He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 5:22
Do 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…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 8:29
when 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.
- Jeremiah 5:22
Through
Psalms 33:7He piles up the waters of the sea; He puts the depths into storehouses.
it leads to
- Exodus 15:8
At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; like a wall the currents stood firm; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
- Exodus 15:8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); GK Chesterton, Alarms and Discursions, The Garden of the Sea (1910); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 38:11; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.