38:10 when I prescribed 1 its limits,
and set 2 in place its bolts and doors,
38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come 3
and no farther, 4
here your proud waves will be confined’? 5
104:6 The watery deep covered it 6 like a garment;
the waters reached 7 above the mountains. 8
104:7 Your shout made the waters retreat;
at the sound of your thunderous voice they hurried off –
104:8 as the mountains rose up,
and the valleys went down –
to the place you appointed for them. 9
104:9 You set up a boundary for them that they could not cross,
so that they would not cover the earth again. 10
1 tc The MT has “and I broke,” which cannot mean “set, prescribed” or the like. The LXX and the Vulgate have such a meaning, suggesting a verb עֲשִׁית (’ashiyt, “plan, prescribe”). A. Guillaume finds an Arabic word with a meaning “measured it by span by my decree.” Would God give himself a decree? R. Gordis simply argues that the basic meaning “break” develops the connotation of “decide, determine” (2 Sam 5:24; Job 14:3; Dan 11:36).
2 tn Dhorme suggested reversing the two verbs, making this the first, and then “shatter” for the second colon.
3 tn The imperfect verb receives the permission nuance here.
4 tn The text has תֹסִיף (tosif, “and you may not add”), which is often used idiomatically (as in verbal hendiadys constructions).
5 tn The MT literally says, “here he will put on the pride of your waves.” The verb has no expressed subject and so is made a passive voice. But there has to be some object for the verb “put,” such as “limit” or “boundary”; the translations “confined; halted; stopped” all serve to paraphrase such an idea. The LXX has “broken” at this point, suggesting the verse might have been confused – but “breaking the pride” of the waves would mean controlling them. Some commentators have followed this, exchanging the verb in v. 11 with this one.
6 tc Heb “you covered it.” The masculine suffix is problematic if the grammatically feminine noun “earth” is the antecedent. For this reason some emend the form to a feminine verb with feminine suffix, כִּסַּתָּה (kisattah, “[the watery deep] covered it [i.e., the earth]”), a reading assumed by the present translation.
7 tn Heb “stood.”
8 sn Verse 6 refers to the condition described in Gen 1:2 (note the use of the Hebrew term תְּהוֹם [tÿhom, “watery deep”] in both texts).
9 tn Heb “from your shout they fled, from the sound of your thunder they hurried off.”
10 tn Heb “a boundary you set up, they will not cross, they will not return to cover the earth.”