a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · noun, common masculine singular absolute
doors
בִּדְלָתַ֣יִםbid.la.Ta.yim
H1817
something swinging · preposition + noun, common feminine dual absolute
forth
בְּ֝גִיח֗וֹbe.gi.Cho
H1518
to gush forth (as water) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
out
יֵצֵֽאye.Tze'
H3318
to go (causatively · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
womb
מֵרֶ֥חֶםme.Re.chem
H7358
the womb · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Proverbs 8:29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
Jeremiah 5:22 Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decre…
Psalms 104:8-9 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
Psalms 33:7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
Job 38:10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 38:4-11
For the humbling of Job, God here shows him his ignorance even concerning the earth and the sea. Though so near, though so bulky, yet he could give no account of their origination, much less of heaven above or hell beneath, which are at such a distance, or of the several parts of matter which are so minute, and then, least of all, of the divine counsels.
I. Concerning the founding of the earth. "If he have such a mighty insight, as he pretends to have, into the counsels of God, let him give some account of the earth he goes upon, which is given to the children of men."
1. Let him tell where he was when this lower world was made, and whether he was advising of assisting in that wonderful work…
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.
Adam Clarke on Job 38:8
Who 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. The allusion to the birth of a child is carried on in the next verse.
John Gill on Job 38:8
Or who shut up the sea with doors,.... 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 Job 3:10; the bowels of the earth being the storehouses where God first laid up the deep waters, Psalm 33:7; and when the chaos, the misshapen earth, was like a woman big with child;
when it brake forth out o…
The Church Fathers
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 it in the womb of the earth.
"I shut up the sea between its doors. The peoples whose fadedness is attached to the earth. Why: "In its doors? Is it first so that she can stop when she persecutes the righteous? Is it also so that the righteous can get out? "When she shuddered like the child who wants to escape the maternal womb. When, in the assemblies of this Babylon soiled by all the pleasures of life, she wished, in anguish, to persecute and annihilate those of whom it is written: "I do not ask you to remove them from this world, but from them. to preserve evil (7). "
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. Of this womb of the heart of the wicked it is said in another place, He hath conceived sorrow, and hath brought forth iniquity. [Ps. 7, 14] By this womb do the wicked conceive when they think evil things. By this womb do they bring forth, when they execute the evils they have thought. The sea then was bursting forth, as if proceeding from the womb, when the waves of worldly threats, conceived in the iniquity of carnal thoughts, were raging for the destruction of Holy Church. But, by God's help, this sea was shut up with doors, because holy men were opposed as a kind of door, against the pride of persecutors, in order that the wrath of persecutors might be crushed by their miracles, and reverence. For when the princes of this world had been brought low, the Lord exalted Holy Church, by their means, above the height of the world, and restrained the assaults of the raging sea, by having raised up the power of the same Church. MORAL INTERPRETATION Who shut up the sea with doors? What is this sea, except our heart, agitated by fury, embittered by strife, swelling with the haughtiness of pride, darkened by the deceit of wickedness? And how mightily this sea rages, any one observes, who understands in himself the secret temptations of thoughts. For behold we are now abandoning our perversities, we are adhering to proper desires, we are now cutting off, outwardly, our wicked works. But yet we are secretly harassed within, by that tempest of our former life, with which we have come thus far; and unless the barriers of unbounded fear were confining it, with the thought of the judgment, and dread of eternal torment, all the foundations of the work which has been raised up in us would have utterly fallen. For if that which rages within in suggestion, were to burst forth in deliberate act, the whole fabric of our life would have lain utterly overthrown. For being conceived in iniquity and born in sin, we…
Dictionary and topics
Continents · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Darkness · Exhibits God’s power and greatness — Exhibits God’s power and greatness
Sea, The · God: Set bounds to, by a perpetual decree — God: Set bounds to, by a perpetual decree
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
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 do…
The morning stars are personified in parallel construction with the angels (1:6; 2:1).
Rashi on Job 38:8
the sea with doors The sand, which is its boundary.
when it broke forth Heb. בגיחו, when it broke forth from the deep, like (Ps. 22:10), “that You drew me (גחי) forth from the womb”; drew me forth.
