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New Living Translation

Job 38:10

For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blessing;   Continents;   God;   Meteorology and Celestial Phenomena;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Sea, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Creation;   Miracles;   Rahab;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Create, Creation;   God;   Mystery;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Bar;   Doors;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Providence;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Chaos;   Job, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Knowledge;   Nature;   World;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Doors;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bar (2);   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Cosmogony;   Door and Door-Post;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
when I determined its boundariesand put its bars and doors in place,
Hebrew Names Version
Marked out for it my bound, Set bars and doors,
King James Version
And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
English Standard Version
and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors,
New Century Version
when I put limits on the sea and put its doors and bars in place,
New English Translation
when I prescribed its limits, and set in place its bolts and doors,
Amplified Bible
And marked for it My [appointed] boundary And set bars and doors [defining the shorelines],
New American Standard Bible
And I placed boundaries on it And set a bolt and doors,
World English Bible
Marked out for it my bound, Set bars and doors,
Geneva Bible (1587)
When I stablished my commandement vpon it, and set barres and doores,
Legacy Standard Bible
And I placed boundaries on itAnd set a bolt and doors,
Berean Standard Bible
when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
Contemporary English Version
Then I built a wall around it, locked the gates,
Complete Jewish Bible
when I made the breakers its boundary set its gates and bars,
Darby Translation
When I cut out for it my boundary, and set bars and doors,
Easy-to-Read Version
I set the limits for the sea and put it behind locked gates.
George Lamsa Translation
And prescribed limits for it, and set bars and doors,
Good News Translation
I marked a boundary for the sea and kept it behind bolted gates.
Lexham English Bible
and I prescribed my rule for it, and I set bars and doors,
Literal Translation
and I broke My limit on it and set bars and doors;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
when I gaue it my comaundement, makynge dores & barres for it,
American Standard Version
And marked out for it my bound, And set bars and doors,
Bible in Basic English
Ordering a fixed limit for it, with locks and doors;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And prescribed for it My decree, and set bars and doors,
King James Version (1611)
And brake vp for it my decreed place, and set barres and doores,
Bishop's Bible (1568)
When I gaue it my commaundement, making doores and barres for it,
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I set bounds to it, surrounding it with bars and gates.
English Revised Version
And prescribed for it my decree, and set bars and doors,
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y cumpasside it with my termes, and Y settide a barre, and doris;
Update Bible Version
And marked out for it my bound, And set bars and doors,
Webster's Bible Translation
And broke up for it my decreed [place], and set bars and doors,
New King James Version
When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors;
New Life Bible
I marked the places where it could not pass, and set locks and doors.
New Revised Standard
and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors,
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And brake off for it my boundary, and fixed a bar and double doors;
Douay-Rheims Bible
I set my bounds around it, and made it bars and doors:
Revised Standard Version
and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors,
Young's Literal Translation
And I measure over it My statute, And place bar and doors,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
And I placed boundaries on it And set a bolt and doors,

Contextual Overview

4 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. 5 Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? 6 What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone 7 as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? 8 "Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb, 9 and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness? 10 For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores. 11 I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come. Here your proud waves must stop!'

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

brake up for it my decreed place: or, established my decree upon it, Job 26:10, Genesis 1:9, Genesis 1:10, Genesis 9:15, Psalms 104:9, Jeremiah 5:22

Reciprocal: Job 2:6 - save Job 38:8 - who Job 41:14 - the Psalms 95:5 - The sea is his Psalms 148:6 - He hath also Ecclesiastes 1:7 - the rivers run Jeremiah 31:35 - when

Cross-References

Genesis 46:12
The sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (though Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
Numbers 11:1
Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said. Then the Lord 's anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.
Numbers 22:34
Then Balaam confessed to the angel of the Lord , "I have sinned. I didn't realize you were standing in the road to block my way. I will return home if you are against my going."
Numbers 26:19
Judah had two sons, Er and Onan, who had died in the land of Canaan.
2 Samuel 11:27
When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. Then she gave birth to a son. But the Lord was displeased with what David had done.
1 Chronicles 21:7
God was very displeased with the census, and he punished Israel for it.
Proverbs 14:32
The wicked are crushed by disaster, but the godly have a refuge when they die.
Proverbs 24:18
For the Lord will be displeased with you and will turn his anger away from them.
Jeremiah 44:4
"Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them, ‘Don't do these horrible things that I hate so much.'
Haggai 1:13
Then Haggai, the Lord 's messenger, gave the people this message from the Lord : "I am with you, says the Lord !"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And brake up for it my decreed [place],.... Or, as Mr. Broughton translates it, "and brake the earth for it by my decree": made a vast chasm in the earth to hold the waters of the sea, which was provided as a sort of cradle to put this swaddled infant in; God cleaved the earth, raised the hills and sank the valleys, which became as channels to convey the waters that ran off the earth to their appointed place, which beautifully expressed in Psalms 104:7; and refers there, as here, to the work of creation on the second day, Genesis 1:9 h;

and set bars and doors; to keep it in its decreed appointed place, that the waters might not go over the earth; these are the shores, as the Targum, the cliffs and rocks upon them, the boundaries of the sea; to which may be added, and what is amazing, the sand upon the seashore is such a boundary to it that it cannot pass, Jeremiah 5:22; but these would be insufficient was it not for the power and will of God, next expressed.

h Or determined, that is, appointed for it its convenient, proper, and fixed place; so David de Pomis, Lexic. fol. 203. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And brake up for it my decreed place - Margin, “established my decree upon it.” So Herder, “I fixed my decrees upon it.” Luther renders it, “Da ich ihm den Lauf brach mit meinem Damm” - “then I broke its course with my barrier.” Umbreit renders it, “I measured out to it my limits;” that is, the limits or bounds which I judged to be proper. So the Vulgate, “Circumdedi illud terminis meis” - “I surrounded it with my limits,” or with such limits as I chose to affix. The Septuagint renders it, “I placed boundaries to it.” Coverdale, “I gave it my commandment.” This is undoubtedly the sense which: the connection demands; and the idea in the common version, that God had broken up his fixed plans in order to accommodate the new-born ocean, is not in accordance with the parallelism. The Hebrew word (שׁבר shâbar) indeed commonly means “to break, to break in pieces.” But, according to Gesenius, and as the place here demands, it may have the sense of measuring off, defining, appointing, “from the idea of breaking into portions;” and then the sense will be, “I measured for it (the sea) my appointed bound.”

This meaning of the word is, however, more probably derived from the Arabic, where the word שׁבר shâbar means to measure with the span (Castell), and hence, the idea here of measuring out the limits of the ocean. The sense is, that God measured out or determined the limits of the sea. The idea of breaking up a limit or boundary which had been before fixed, it is believed, is not in the text. The word rendered “my decreed place” (חקי chuqiy) refers commonly to a law, statute, or ordinance, meaning originally anything that was “engraved” (חקק châqaq) and then, because laws were engraved on tablets of brass or stone, any statute or decree. Hence, it means anything prescribed or appointed, and hence, a “bound,” or “limit;” see the notes at Job 26:10; compare Proverbs 8:29, “When he gave to the sea his decree (חקו chuqô) that the waters should not pass his commandment.” The idea in the passage before us is, that God fixed the limits of the ocean by his own purpose or pleasure.

And set bars - Doors were formerly fastened, as they are often now, by cross-bars; and the idea here is, that God had inclosed the ocean, and so fastened the doors from where, it would issue out, that it could not pass.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 38:10. And brake up for it my decreed place] This refers to the decree, Genesis 1:9: "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place."

And set bars and doorsAnd let the dry land appear. This formed the bars and doors of the sea; the land being everywhere a barrier against the encroachments and inundations of the sea; and great rivers, bays, creeks, &c., the doors by which it passes into the interior of continents, &c.


 
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