Job 38:11
in Job 38and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; And here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
KJV
And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
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This verse in Job 38
Commentary
10 notes on this verseAnd I set a bar and doors, and said, Hitherto shall thou come, and thou shalt not proceed further, and here shall thou break thy swelling waves. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION What is designated by 'doors,' but holy preachers, and what by the 'bar,' except the Lord Incarnate? For He has in truth opposed these doors as a firmer barrier against the force of the swelling sea, the more He has strengthened them by barring them Himself.
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
here your proud waves must stop
Barnes says this is best felt on a beach. Clarke applies the verse to the tides, whose ebb and flow the moon and sun hold within their boundaries. Gregory read the doors as preachers and the bar as the Lord, holding back the proud waves of the sea.
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 Church1 voice
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
18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all. 19 Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, 20 That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof? 21 Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
And said, hitherto shalt thou come, but no further,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
And said, Hitherto shalt thou come - This is a most sublime expression, and its full force can be felt only by one who has stood on the shores of the ocean, and seen its mighty waves roll toward the beach as if in their pride they would sweep everything away, and how they are checked by the barrier which God has made. A voice seems to say to them that they may roll in their pride and grandeur so far, but no further.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Hitherto shalt thou come - Thus far shall thy flux and reflux extend. The tides are marvellously limited and regulated, not only by the lunar and solar attractions, but by the quantum of time also which is required to remove any part of the earth’s surface from under the immediate attractive influence of the sun and moon. And this regulation takes place by means of the rotation of the earth round its own axis, which causes one thousand and forty-two miles of its equator to pass from under any given point in the heavens in one hour; and about five hundred and eighty miles in the latitude of London: so that the attracted fluid parts are every moment passing from under the direct attractive influence, and thus the tides cannot generally be raised to any extraordinary height. The attraction of the sun and moon, and the gravitation of its own parts to its own center, which prevent too great a flux on the one hand, and too great a reflux on the other; or, in other words, too high a tide, and too deep an ebb, are also some of those bars and doors by which its proud waves are stayed, and prevented from coming farther; all being regulated by these laws of attraction by the sun and moon, the gravitation of its own parts from the sun and moon, and the diurnal motion round its own axis, by which the fluid parts, easily yielding to the above attraction, are continually moving from under the direct attractive influence. Here a world of wisdom and management was necessary, in order to proportion all these things to each other, so as to procure the great benefits which result from the flux and reflux of the sea, and prevent the evils that must take place, at least occasionally, were not those bars and doors provided. It is well known that the spring-tides happen at the change and full of the moon, at which time she is in conjunction with and opposition to the sun. […]
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
On the verses either side of this one
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
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וָאֹמַ֗ר | vaomar | and I said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | to | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| פֹּ֣ה | poh | here | H6311 → | |
| תָ֭בוֹא | tavo' | you will come | H935 → | 2568 times |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תֹסִ֑יף | tosif | you will add | H3254 → | 212 times |
| וּפֹ֥א־ | ufo'- | and here | H6311 → | |
| יָ֝שִׁ֗ית | yashit | someone will fix | H7896 → | 83 times |
| בִּגְא֥וֹן | bigon | in [the] pride of | H1347 → | 49 times |
| גַּלֶּֽיךָ׃ | galeikha | waves your | H1530 → | 34 times |
וָאֹמַ֗רand I said
vaomarH559 →5305 times
עַד־to
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
פֹּ֣הhere
pohH6311 →
תָ֭בוֹאyou will come
tavo'H935 →2568 times
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
תֹסִ֑יףyou will add
tosifH3254 →212 times
וּפֹ֥א־and here
ufo'-H6311 →
יָ֝שִׁ֗יתsomeone will fix
yashitH7896 →83 times
בִּגְא֥וֹןin [the] pride of
bigonH1347 →49 times
גַּלֶּֽיךָ׃waves your
galeikhaH1530 →34 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
Psalms 89:9You rule the raging sea; when its waves mount up, You still them.
it leads to
- Psalms 65:7
You stilled the roaring of the seas, the pounding of their waves, and the tumult of the nations.
- Psalms 107:25–29
For He spoke and raised a tempest that lifted the waves of the sea.
- Mark 4:41
Overwhelmed with fear, they asked one another, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
- Mark 4:39
Then 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.
- Matthew 8:24–27
Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was engulfed by the waves; but Jesus was sleeping.
- Psalms 65:7
Through
Proverbs 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.
it leads to
- Psalms 104:9
You set a boundary they cannot cross, that they may never again cover the earth.
- 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…
- Genesis 1:9–10
And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.
- Psalms 104:9
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About Job
This page draws on 9 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; 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.