Job 38:8

Old Testament Wisdom/Poetry ASV (1901)

What does Job 38:8 say?

The American Standard Version records this verse as: “Or [who] shut up the sea with doors, When it brake forth, [as if] it had issued out of the womb;” Read the surrounding verses and the named sources below before drawing broader conclusions.

The verse

Or [who] shut up the sea with doors, When it brake forth, [as if] it had issued out of the womb;
Job 38:8 — American Standard Version

Context — Job 38

American Standard Version (1901) — public domain. Click any verse for its study page.
8Or [who] shut up the sea with doors, When it brake forth, [as if] it had issued out of the womb;

What do historical commentaries say?

John Gill's Exposition
John Gill (1697–1771) · Exposition of the Old and New Testament · 18th-century historical commentary
“Or [who] shut up the sea with doors, etc.] From the earth the transition is to the sea, according to the order of the creation; and this refers not to the state and case of the sea as at the flood, of which some interpret it, but as at its first creation; and it is throughout this account represented as an infant, and here first as in embryo, shut up in the bowels of the earth, where it was when first created with it, as an infant shut up in its mother’s womb, and with the doors of it; (see <180310>Job 3:10); the bowels of the earth being the storehouses where God first laid up the deep waters, (<193307>Psalm 33:7); and when the chaos, the misshapen earth, was like a woman big with child;…”
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Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible · 19th-century historical commentary
“doors--floodgates; these when opened caused the flood (Gen 8:2); or else, the shores. womb--of chaos. The bowels of the earth. Image from childbirth (Job 38:8-9; Eze 32:2; Mic 4:10). Ocean at its birth was wrapped in clouds as its swaddling bands.”
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Barnes' Notes
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · Notes on the Whole Bible · 19th-century historical commentary
“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; Deuteronomy 3:5; 1 Samuel 23:7; Isaiah 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…”
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Wesley's Explanatory Notes
John Wesley (1703–1791) · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament and Old Testament notes · 18th-century historical commentary
“Doors - Who was it, that set bounds to the vast and raging ocean, and shut it up, as it were with doors within its proper place, that it might not overflow the earth? Break forth - From the womb or bowels of the earth, within which the waters were for the most part contained, and out of which they were by God's command brought forth into the channel which God had appointed for them. Job 38:9”
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Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge
R. A. Torrey and contributors · The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge · Cross-reference reference work
“who: Job 38:10; Gen 1:9; Psa 33:7, Psa 104:9; Pro 8:29; Jer 5:22 out: Job 38:29 Job 38:9”
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Keil & Delitzsch
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · Commentary on the Old Testament · 19th-century historical commentary
“8 And who shut up the sea with doors, When it broke through, issued from the womb, 9 When I put clouds round it as a garment, And thick mist as its swaddling clothes, 10 And I broke for it my bound, And set bars and doors, 11 And said: Hitherto come, and no further, And here be thy proud waves stayed!? The state of תהו ובהו was the first half, and the state of תהום the second half of the primeval condition of the forming earth. The question does not, however, refer to the תהום, in which the waters of the sky and the waters of the earth were as yet not separated, but, passing over this intermediate condition of the forming earth, to the sea, the waters of which God shut up as by means of a…”
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Related study paths

Sources and verification