Job 38:11

11 and said, "Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped'?

Job 38:11 Meaning and Commentary

Job 38:11

And said, hitherto shalt thou come, but no further
The waters of the sea shall spread themselves to such and such shores, and wash them, but go no further; its rolling tides shall go up so far in rivers that go out of it, and then return, keeping exactly to time and place; this is said by Jehovah, the Word of God, and through his almighty power is tended to;

and here shall thy proud waves be stayed;
so high and no higher shall they lift up themselves; so far and no farther shall they roll on, than to the boundaries fixed for them; and though they may toss up themselves as proud men toss up their heads, for which, reason pride is ascribed to them, yet they shall not prevail, ( Jeremiah 5:22 ) ; all this may be accommodated to the afflictions of God's people, which are sometimes compared to the waves and billows of the sea, ( Psalms 42:7 ) ( 88:7 ) ; and these issue out of the womb of God's purposes and decrees, and are not the effects of chance; they are many, and threaten to overwhelm, but God is with his people in them, and preserves them from being overflowed by them; he has set the bounds and measures of them, beyond which they cannot go; see ( Isaiah 27:8 ) ( 43:2 ) ; and also to the world, and to the men of it, who are like a troubled sea, ( Daniel 7:2 Daniel 7:3 ) ( Isaiah 57:20 ) ; and who rise, and swell, and dash against the people of God, being separated from them who were originally mixed with them; but the Lord restrains their wrath and fury, and suffers them not to do his people any harm; whom he has placed in the munition of rocks out of their reach, that those proud waters cannot go over them as they threaten to do; see ( Psalms 76:10 ) ( 124:2-6 ) .

Job 38:11 In-Context

9 when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors,
11 and said, "Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped'?
12 "Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.