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Commentary Critical and Explanatory

Job 38:8

Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

Doors - flood-gates; these when opened caused the flood (Genesis 7:11); or else the shores.

Womb - of chaos. The bowels of the earth. Image from child-birth (Job 38:8). Ocean at its birth was wrapped in clouds as its swaddling bands (Ezekiel 32:2; Micah 4:10).

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See also Job 38:8 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse 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 B...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible 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,...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    V. THE LORD'S TESTIMONY TO JOB AND CONTROVERSY WITH HIM CHAPTER 38:1-38 _ 1. The Lord speaks to Job (Job 38:1)_ 2. The questions of the Lord (Job 38:4) Job 38:1. The voice of man is hushed; the voi...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    THE WONDERS OF THE INANIMATE CREATION. Where was Job when the earth was made? The work of creation is described as the building of a house. In Job 38:7 the stars, which are older than the world (contr...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    Yahweh, speaking to Job out of the storm, challenges him to the contest, which he has so often demanded....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    The sea....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _as if it had issued_ Rather, AND ISSUED out of the womb....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    A survey of the inanimate creation, the wonders of earth and sky the earth, Job 38:4; the heavens, Job 38:18...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Earth and sea....

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    WHEN IT BRAKE FORTH, AS IF IT HAD ISSUED OUT OF THE WOMB— _When it burst forth as an infant, that cometh out of the womb._ Heath....

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    _THE SHATTERING OF SILENCE_ VI. THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND THE PENITENCE OF JOB (Job 38:1, Job 42:6) A. INTEGRITY, CERTAINTY, AND KNOWLEDGE (Job 38:1, Job 40:2) 1.

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    WHEN IT BRAKE FORTH] The ancients thought that the sea issued from the subterranean abyss, with which it was connected by springs in the bed of the ocean: cp. Job 38:16 and Genesis 7:11. 10A. Render,...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    THE FIRST SPEECH OF THE ALMIGHTY (JOB 38:39) The marvels of creation, which witness to the infinite wisdom, power, and watchful care of the Creator, are presented to Job in such a way as to force fro...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    God controls the sea. Job and his friends realised that the sea was a dangerous place. Strange animals lived in the water (chapter 41). The men spoke about terrible floods (Job 22:11). But a great ani...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

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  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וַ יָּ֣סֶךְ בִּ דְלָתַ֣יִם יָ֑ם בְּ֝ גִיחֹ֗ו

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    XXVII. "MUSIC IN THE BOUNDS OF LAW" Job 38:1 OVER the shadowed life of Job, and the world shadowed for him by his own intellectual and moral gloom, a storm sweeps, and from the storm issues a voice....

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    DIVINE POWER AND HUMAN IGNORANCE Job 38:1 When the storm had ceased and the thunder was hushed, a voice spoke out of the golden splendor of the sky. See Job 37:21. Job had challenged God to answer hi...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    Here begins the third movement in the great drama, that which deals with the controversy between Jehovah and Job. Out of the midst of the whirlwind the divine voice speaks. Its first word is a challen...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Shut. Hebrew also, (Haydock) "facilitated the birth of the sea," as a midwife. (Grotius) (Calmet) --- Forth. Septuagint, "raged." (Haydock) --- God represents the waters ready to overwhelm all when f...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    (4) В¶ Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. (5) Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? ...

  • John Brown Commentaries Selected Books of the Bible

    God Speaks Job Repents I. INTRODUCTION A. Last week we covered a lot of territory! 1. We finished with Elihu's speeches to Job and found that, although he was a lot more accurate in what he had to...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 38 THROUGH 42. Jehovah then speaks, and addressing Job, carries on the subject. He makes Job sensible of his nothingness. Job confesses himself to be vile, an...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    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 w...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Or [who] shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, [as if] it had issued out of the womb? Ver. 8. _Or who shut up the sea with doors_] _i.e._ With bounds and banks. The sea God shut up in the...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Who shut up the sea with 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? _When i...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Or who shut up the sea with doors, penning it up in the bed of the ocean, WHEN IT BRAKE FORTH AS IF IT HAD ISSUED OUT OF THE WOMB, when order was established out of chaos and the raging and swelling w...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD'S MAJESTY IN CREATION...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    Marvellously, God Himself directly intervenes in this discussion so early in the history of man. The storm that had been brewing as Elihu spoke becomes a whirlwind, and God spoke to Job out of the whi...

  • Mark Dunagan Commentaries

    While the origin of the earth was pictured as the construction of. building (Job 38:4-7), the origin of the oceans is described in terms associated with childbirth. "In Mesopotamian and Ugaritic mytho...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    4-11 For the humbling of Job, God here shows him his ignorance, even concerning the earth and the sea. As we cannot find fault with God's work, so we need not fear concerning it. The works of his prov...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    Who was it, thou or I, that did set bounds to the vast and raging ocean, and shut it up as it were with doors within its proper place and storehouse, that it might not overflow the earth; which withou...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Job 38:8 shut H5526 (H8686) sea H3220 doors H1817 forth H1518 (H8800) issued H3318 (H8799) womb...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: God's challenge to Job. CHARACTERS: God, Job. CONCLUSION: Those who try to call God to account, will be called to account. Seeking to establish one's own character and darkening the counse...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Job 38:1. _The whirlwind._ Clouds and flames are the chariots of the Lord, in deigning to speak with men. When he spake to Elijah in Horeb, it was with wind, and fire, and earthquake. Likewise in Psal...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

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  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    _JEHOVAH’S ADDRESS TO JOB_ Elihu had now said all he intended. Possibly interrupted by the storm which had been gathering during his speech. Out of the storm-cloud, from which already issued thunders...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    CLOSE OF THE CONTROVERSY BY THE INTERFERENCE OF THE ALMIGHTY. EXPOSITION The discourse, by which the Almighty answers Job and rebukes his "friends," occupies four chapters (ch. 38-41.). It is broken...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

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  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Genesis 1:9; Jeremiah 5:22; Job 38:10; Job 38:29; Proverbs 8:29;...

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    GOD SPEAKS TO JOB Job 38:1 _to Job 42:1_ INTRODUCTORY WORDS God's words to Job do not carry much by way of the explanation of redemption. Job was a child of God, and well-instructed on those lines....

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    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 bo...

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