Job 38:8
in Job 38Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Or who shut up the sea with doors, When it brake forth, as if it had issued 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?
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This verse in Job 38
Commentary
10 notes on this verseWho shut up the sea with doors - Who gathered the waters together into one place, and fixed the sea its limits, so that it cannot overpass them to inundate the earth? When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? - This is a very fine metaphor. The sea is represented as a newly born infant issuing from the womb of the void and formless chaos; and the delicate circumstance of the liquor amnii, which bursts out previously to the birth of the foetus, alluded to.
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.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIII · Written before 604.
proposed
Who shut up the sea with doors, when it was breaking forth, as if proceeding from the womb? ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION For what do we understand by the 'sea,' but the world, and what by the 'womb,' but the corruption of carnal thoughts? For in this place by the word 'womb' is designated the secret and evil thought of carnal things. And this womb conceives not a bodily substance in order to produce offspring, but a cause of sorrow, in order to fulfil its wickedness.
After the foundation of the earth, he continues then speaking about the waters which are immediately placed over the land. The natural order of the elements requires that water surrounds the earth at every point like air surrounds earth and water at every point. But …
The sea is like a baby who gets out after being fashioned in the womb and is wrapped in clothes of wool. After bringing it into existence from nothing, God gathers the sea together from the place where it was and delimits, shuts and encircles …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
This refers to the third day's work, when God said ( Gen. i. 9 ), Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and it was so. Out of the great deep or chaos, in which earth and water were intermixed, in obedience to the divine command the waters broke forth like a child out of the teeming womb,
Or who shut up the sea with doors,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Then the waters that had covered the deep, and stood above the mountains, retired with precipitation. At God's rebuke they fled, Ps. civ. This newborn babe is clothed and swaddled,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
doors--floodgates; these when opened caused the flood (Ge 8:2); or else, the shores. womb--of chaos. Image from childbirth (Job 38:8, 9; Ocean at its birth was wrapped in clouds as its swaddling bands.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Or who shut up the sea with doors - This refers also to the act of the creation, and to the fact that God fixed limits to the raging of the ocean. The word “doors” is used here rather to denote gates, such as are made to shut up water in a dam. The Hebrew word properly refers, in the dual form which is used here דלתים delethiym), to “double doors,” or to folding doors, and is also applied to the gates of a city; Deu 3:5; 1Sa 23:7; Isa 45:1. The idea is, that the floods were bursting forth from the abyss or the center of the earth, and were checked by placing gates or doors which restrained them. Whether this is designed to be a poetic or a real description of what took place at the creation, it is not easy to determine. Nothing forbids the idea that something like this may have occurred when the waters in the earth were pouring forth tumultuously, and when they were restrained by obstructions placed there by the hand of God, as if he had made gates through which they could pass only when he should open them. This supposition also would accord well with the account of the flood in Gen 7:11, where it is said that “the fountains of the great deep were broken up,” as if those flood-gates had been opened, or the obstructions which God had placed there had been suffered to be broken through, and the waters of their own accord flowed over the world. We know as yet too little of the interior of the earth, to ascertain whether this is to be understood as a literal description of what actually occurred. When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb - All the images here are taken from child-birth. The ocean is represented as being born, and then as invested with clouds and darkness as its covering and its swaddling-bands. The image is a bold one, and I do not know that it is any where else applied to the formation of the ocean.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיָּ֣סֶךְ | vaiyasekh | and he shut off | H5526 → | 24 times |
| בִּדְלָתַ֣יִם | bidlatayim | with doors | H1817 → | 88 times |
| יָ֑ם | yam | [the] sea | H3220 → | 396 times |
| בְּ֝גִיח֗וֹ | begicho | when burst forth it | H1518 → | |
| מֵרֶ֥חֶם | merechem | from [the] womb | H7358 → | 26 times |
| יֵצֵֽא׃ | yetze' | it came forth | H3318 → | 1067 times |
וַיָּ֣סֶךְand he shut off
vaiyasekhH5526 →24 times
בִּדְלָתַ֣יִםwith doors
bidlatayimH1817 →88 times
יָ֑ם[the] sea
yamH3220 →396 times
בְּ֝גִיח֗וֹwhen burst forth it
begichoH1518 →
מֵרֶ֥חֶםfrom [the] womb
merechemH7358 →26 times
יֵצֵֽא׃it came forth
yetze'H3318 →1067 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
- Psalms 104:9
You set a boundary they cannot cross, that they may never again cover the earth.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 38:10–11
when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
- Job 26:10
He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
- 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—
- Psalms 104:9
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
- 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.
- Jeremiah 5:22
Through
Genesis 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.
it leads to
- 2 Peter 3:5
But they deliberately overlook the fact that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water,
- 2 Peter 3:5
Through
Psalms 33:7He piles up the waters of the sea; He puts the depths into storehouses.
it leads to
- 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.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Genesis 1:9–10
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); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIII; Ishodad of Merv, COMMENTARY ON JOB 38:8; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.