Job 7:12

“[Am] I a sea, or a whale, etc.] Like the restless sea, to which very wicked, profligate, and abandoned sinners are compared, that are continually casting up the mire and dirt of sin and wickedness; am I such an one? or like the raging sea, its proud waters and foaming waves, to which fierce and furious persecutors and tyrannical oppressors are compared; did I behave in such a manner to the poor and distressed in the time of prosperity? nay, was I not the reverse of all this, kind and gentle to them, took their part, and rescued them out of the hands of those that oppressed them? (see <182912>Job 29:12-17); or like its tossing waves, which attempt to pass the bounds that are set to them; am I…”

“Why dost thou deny me the comfort of care-assuaging sleep? Why scarest thou me with frightful dreams? Am I a sea--regarded in Old Testament poetry as a violent rebel against God, the Lord of nature, who therefore curbs his violence (Jer 5:22). or a whale--or some other sea monster (Isa 27:1), that Thou needest thus to watch and curb me? The Egyptians watched the crocodile most carefully to prevent its doing mischief.”

“Am I a sea? - That is, “am I like a raging and tumultuous sea, that it is necessary to restrain and confine me? The sense of the verse is, that God had treated him as if he were untamable and turbulent, as if he were like the restless ocean, or as if he were some monster, which could be restrained within proper limits only by the stern exercise of power. Dr. Good, following Reiske, renders this, “a savage beast,” understanding by the Hebrew word ים yâm a sea-monster instead of the sea itself, and then any ferocious beast, as the wild buffalo. But it is clear, I think, that the word never has this meaning. It means properly the sea; then a lake or inland sea, and then it is applied to any…”

“A sea - Am I as fierce and unruly as the sea, which, if thou didst not set bounds to it, would overwhelm the earth? Or, am I a vast and ungovernable sea - monster? Which thou must restrain by thy powerful providence. That, &c. - That thou shouldest guard and restrain me with such heavy and unexampled miseries? We are apt in affliction to complain of God, as if he laid more upon us than there is occasion for: whereas we are never in heaviness, but when there is need, nor more than there is need. Job 7:17”

“7:12 The sea monster (Hebrew yam) and dragon (Hebrew tannin) represent chaotic opposition to God’s orderly creation. In Canaanite mythology, Yam was the primordial sea god and Tannin was a sea monster (Jer 51:34) or a mythological deity of chaos (Ps 74:13-14). This kind of chaos is also represented in Job as Leviathan (Job 3:8; Isa 27:1) or Rahab (Job 9:13; 26:12; Isa 51:9). The Lord is sovereign over the sea and all that it represents (Job 26:12; 38:8-11; Ps 89:9-10; Jer 5:22).”

“I a sea: Job 7:17, Job 38:6-11; Lam 3:7 a whale: Job 41:1-34 Job 7:13”

“12 Am I a sea or a sea-monster, That thou settest a watch over me? 13 For I said, My bed shall comfort me; My couch shall help me to bear my complaint. 14 Then thou scaredst me with dreams, And thou didst wake me up in terror from visions, 15 So that my soul chose suffocation, Death rather than this skeleton. 16 I loathe it, I would not live alway; Let me alone, for my days are breath. Since a watch on the sea can only be designed to effect the necessary precautions at its coming forth from the shores, it is probable that the poet had the Nile in mind when he used ים, and consequently the crocodile by תּנּין. The Nile is also called ים in Isa 19:5, and in Homer ὠκεανός, Egyptian oham (=…”