Job 38:11

and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — God addresses Job during a rhetorical discourse from the whirlwind, responding to Job’s demands for an explanation of his suffering. The speech occurs as God questions human capacity to comprehend cosmic order.

The words — The Hebrew עַד־פֹּה תָבוֹא (‘ad-poh tavo’) literally means “you will come this far,” while תֹסִיף (tosif) translates to “you will add” or “go further,” and יָשִׁית (yashit) signifies “someone will fix” or “set a boundary.”

The thread — The motif of God restraining the sea appears in Psalms 89:9, where God stills its waves, and Proverbs 8:29, which records God setting a boundary so waters would not surpass His command.

Why it lands — The text states that God commands the sea to halt at a fixed limit, establishing that divine authority overrides natural forces. This requires the reader to accept human limitation before absolute sovereignty.

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

וָאֹמַ֗רva./'o.Marand/ I said עַד־'ad-to פֹּ֣הpohhere תָ֭בוֹאTa.Vo'you will come וְלֹ֣אve./Lo'and/ not תֹסִ֑יףto.Sifyou will add וּפֹ֥א־u./Fo'-and/ here יָ֝שִׁ֗יתya.Shitsomeone will fix בִּגְא֥וֹןbi/g.'onin/ [the] pride of גַּלֶּֽיךָ׃ga.Lei./khawaves/ your

King James Version

And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

Cross-references

Psalms 89:9 You rule the raging sea; when its waves mount up, You still them.
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.
Psalms 65:6 You formed the mountains by Your power, having girded Yourself with might.
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.
Luke 8:32 There on the hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. So the demons begged Jesus to let them enter the pigs, and He gave them permission.
Job 2:6 “Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “He is in your hands, but you must spare his life.”
Psalms 93:3 The floodwaters have risen, O LORD; the rivers have raised their voice; the seas lift up their pounding waves.
Isaiah 27:8 By warfare and exile You contended with her and removed her with a fierce wind, as on the day the east wind blows.
Job 1:22 In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.
Psalms 76:10 Even the wrath of man shall praise You; with the survivors of wrath You will clothe Yourself.