Bible Strands
Jeremiah 5:22
Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through Jeremiah to the people of Judah, who have been called "foolish and senseless" (v. 21) and shown to have "stubborn and rebellious hearts" (v. 23). The rhetorical question is a rebuke: their refusal to fear Him is not ignorance but defiance.
The words — תִּירָאוּ (tîrā'û, "do you fear," from yārā, qal imperfect 2nd masc. pl.) carries the verse's charge; the verb implies awe before a superior, not mere caution. מִפָּנַי (mîp̄ānay, "before me / from my face") is the Hebrew idiom for standing in the presence of another, here intensifying the demand that they reckon with His nearness.
The thread — The image of God setting the sea's boundary recurs in Job 38:10 ("fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors"), Psalms 104:9 ("You set a boundary they cannot cross"), and Job 26:10 ("inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters"). Jeremiah draws on this shared tradition to ground his accusation in a fact the audience already knows.
Why it lands — The verse asks whether the reader has ever treated God's sovereignty over creation as a reason for personal reverence rather than a distant fact. It reduces the question to one: if you know He holds the sea in check, why do you not tremble?
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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 decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
Cross-references
- Job 38:10 when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
- Psalms 104:9 You set a boundary they cannot cross, that they may never again cover the earth.
- Job 26:10 He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
- Deuteronomy 28:58 If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God—
- Psalms 119:120 My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.
- Proverbs 8:29 when He set a boundary for the sea, so that the waters would not surpass His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth.
- Jeremiah 10:7 Who would not fear You, O King of nations? This is Your due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You.
- Nahum 1:4 He rebukes the sea and dries it up; He makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon wilts.
- Mark 4:39 Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. “Silence!” He commanded. “Be still!” And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm.
- Revelation 15:4 Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”