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Mark Dunagan Commentaries

Job 7:12

"Am. the sea, or the sea monster, that You set. guard over me?": God had set limits to the sea (Genesis 1:10). Job complains that God either has him under guard, constantly watched, or is trying to muzzle him. He could be complaining that he was being guarded like. defeated enemy. He also might be complaining that God is acting like Job is. threat to Him, when this is not the case. In various mythologies of the time,. god or gods were said to overcome. sea monster and set. guard over him or her. Job borrows imagery from these ancient myths, without actually believing in them.

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See also Job 7:12 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Job 7:12. AM _I A SEA, OR A WHALE_] "Am I condemned as the Egyptians were who were drowned in the Red Sea? or am I as Pharaoh, who was drowned in it in his sins, that thou settest a keeper over...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    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 turbulen...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER S 6-7 JOB'S ANSWER _ 1. His Despair justified by the greatness of his suffering (Job 6:1)_ 2. He requests to be cut off (Job 6:8) 3. He reproacheth his friends (Job 6:14) 4. The misery of...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    Job again gives utterance to his complaint. In the previous passage Job's tone, as in Job 3:11, had become quieter, and his complaint almost an elegy on human misery. But now he bursts forth again wit...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    AM I. ? Figure of speech _Erotesis._ App-6. WHALE. a sea-monster. WATCH. a bound. Compare Jeremiah 6:22. OVER. about, as in Job 13:27; Proverbs 8:29....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    First, he asks with bitter irony if he is _the sea or the monster of the sea_, that he must be watched and subdued with plagues lest he prove dangerous to the universe? The proud waves of the sea must...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    AM I A SEA, OR A WHALE, &C.— Houbigant renders it, _Am I a sea or a whale, that thou raisest a tempest against me?_ an idea which very well suits with that storm of troubles wherewith Job was nearly o...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    6. He finds no mercy, neither from God or from his friends. (Job 7:11-15) TEXT 7:11-15 11 THEREFORE I WILL NOT REFRAIN MY MONTH; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bit...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _AM I A SEA, OR A WHALE, THAT THOU SETTEST A WATCH OVER ME?_ Why dost thou deny me the comfort of care-assuaging sleep? Why scarest thou me with frightful dreams? AM I, THEN, A SEA - regarded in Old...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    JOB'S FIRST SPEECH (CONCLUDED) 1-10. Job laments the hardship and misery of his destiny....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    'Am I so dangerous a character that I need such persistent persecution?.' WHALE] rather, 'sea monster,' perhaps the personification of the sea, the mythical dragon of the ancients. The Babylonians tol...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    Job was right. God controls the sea. See Job 38:8-11. And God controls great animals, like the crocodile (Job 3:8 and Job chapter 41). Job thought that God was using these terrible troubles to contro...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    JOB, A SERVANT OF GOD Job _KEITH SIMONS_ Words in boxes (except for words in brackets) are from the Bible. This commentary has been through Advanced Checking. CHAPTER 7 JOB CONTINUES HIS REPLY T...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    AM I A SEA, OR A WHALE...? — This very hard verse it seems most reasonable to explain, if we can, from Scripture itself: _e.g.,_ in Jeremiah 5:22 we read, “Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    הֲֽ יָם ־אָ֭נִי אִם ־תַּנִּ֑ין כִּֽי ־תָשִׂ֖י

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    VIII. MEN FALSE: GOD OVERBEARING Job 6:1; Job 7:1 Job SPEAKS WORST to endure of all things is the grief that preys on a man's own heart because no channel outside self is provided for the hot strea...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    LONGING FOR THE EVENING Job 7:1 The servant eagerly longs for the lengthening shadow, which tells him that his day of labor is at an end, and we may allow ourselves to anticipate the hour of our rew...

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

    Without waiting for their reply, Job broke out into a new lamentation, more bitter than the first, for it came out of a heart whose sorrow was aggravated by the misunderstanding of friends. Indeed, it...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    [Am] I a sea, (h) or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me? (h) Am I not a poor wretch? Why do you need to lay so much pain on me?...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Sea. Ungovernable and malicious. Some of the ancients looked upon the sea as a huge animal, whose breathing caused the tides. (Strabo i.; Solin xxxii.) --- They represented its fury as proverbial. "F...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    (11) Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. (12) Amos I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me? (1...

  • John Brown Commentaries Selected Books of the Bible

    Job's Answer to Eliphaz I. INTRODUCTION I. Job 7:1 (NKJV) "[Is] [there] not a time of hard service for man on earth? [Are] [not] his days also like the days of a hired man? Job 7:2 Like a servant w...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 4 THROUGH 31. As to the friends of Job, they do not call for any extended remarks. They urge the doctrine that God's earthly government is a full measure and...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    [AM] I A SEA, OR A WHALE,.... 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...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Job 7:12 [Am] I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me? Ver. 12. _Am I a sea, or a whale_] Can I bear all troubles, as the sea receives all waters, and the whale bears all tempests? Thi...

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

    _Am I 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 a whale? _ Am I a vast and ungovernable sea-monster? _that thou settest a w...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Am I a sea or a whale, some monster of the deep, THAT THOU SET TEST A WATCH OVER ME? He felt himself watched, shut in, by God, like a dangerous creature which might threaten to overwhelm the world....

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    JOB ARRAIGNS GOD...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    DOES GOD NOT RECOMPENSE GOOD DEEDS? (vv.1-16) Job's questions in verse 1 indicate why he was so distressed at God's dealings. No doubt too his friends would agree to his questions. "Is there not a t...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    7-16 Plain truths as to the shortness and vanity of man's life, and the certainty of death, do us good, when we think and speak of them with application to ourselves. Dying is done but once, and ther...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    Am I so great, and powerful, and dangerous a creature, that thou needest to use extraordinary power and violence to rule and subdue me? Am I as fierce and unruly as the sea, which, if thou didst not s...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Job 7:12 sea H3220 serpent H8577 set H7760 (H8799) guard H4929 I a sea - Job 7:17,...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    Job was sorely troubled by the cruel speeches of his friends, and he answered them out of the bitterness of his soul. What we are first about to read is a part of his language under those circumstance...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Job's answer to Eliphaz continued. CHARACTERS: God, Job, Eliphaz. CONCLUSION: We believe in the sun even when it is hidden behind a cloud, therefore we should not doubt the goodness of God...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Job 7:1. _Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth?_ הלא צבא _hela zaba,_ Nonne militia est homini super terra, et sicut dies mercenarii dies ejus? “Is not the life of man a warfare upon the e...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Am I a sea, or a whale, that Thou settest a watch over me?_ WATCH AND WARD These words are part of that first great cry to heaven that broke from the stricken soul of Job. He seems to expostulate wi...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JOB—NOTE ON JOB 7:12 Job wonders why God treats him as if he were as powerful and dangerous as the SEA or a SEA MONSTER. ⇐

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    _CONTINUATION OF JOB’S SPEECH_ Job ceases to altercate with Eliphaz and to defend himself. Resumes his complaints, and ends by addressing himself to God. I. COMPLAINS OF THE GENERAL LOT OF HUMANITY...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION JOB 7:1 In this chapter Job first bewails his miserable fate, of which he expects no alleviation (verses 1-10); then claims an unlimited right of complaint (verse 11); and finally enters i...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Is there not an appointed time to man upon the earth? are not his days also like the days of a hireling? As a servant earnestly desires the shadow (Job 7:1-2), That is, the shadow of the clock going...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Job 38:6; Job 41:1; Job 7:17; Lamentations 3:7...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    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 powe...

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Old Testament