38:8 “Who shut up 1 the sea with doors
when it burst forth, 2 coming out of the womb,
40:23 If the river rages, 3 it is not disturbed,
it is secure, 4 though the Jordan
should surge up to its mouth.
1 tn The MT has “and he shut up.” The Vulgate has “Who?” and so many commentaries and editions adopt this reading, if not from the Vulgate, then from the sense of the sequence in the text itself.
2 tn The line uses two expressions, first the temporal clause with גִּיחַ (giakh, “when it burst forth”) and then the finite verb יֵצֵא (yetse’, “go out”) to mark the concomitance of the two actions.
3 tn The word ordinarily means “to oppress.” So many commentators have proposed suitable changes: “overflows” (Beer), “gushes” (Duhm), “swells violently” (Dhorme, from a word that means “be strong”).
4 tn Or “he remains calm.”