He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.
Ver. 10. He hath compassed the waters with bounds] Decreto circinavit superficiem aquarum (Tremel.). He hath as it were with a pair of compasses drawn a circle about the sea, that it may not pass to drown the earth. Confer Job 38:8; Job 38:10,11; Psalms 33:7; Psalms 89:10; Psalms 104:9; Proverbs 8:29. So he drew a circle round about the earth, Proverbs 8:27, doing all with infinite wisdom, Pondere, mensura, numero, &c. He foundeth the earth not upon solid rocks, but fluid waters. And that it floateth not upon them, nor is shaken with them (as oft as there is a tempest in the ocean that begirteth it), neither yet is overflowed by them, this is the wonderful work of God. Aristotle in his book De Mirabilibus admireth it, and acknowledgeth God's providence, which elsewhere he denieth. Terminum aquis prescripsit, saith Job here. And this either he had from Moses, Genesis 1:10, or, if he lived before Moses, as it is most likely he did, he had it, as he had many other things, by tradition from the fathers. Sailors tell us, that as they draw nigh to the shore, when they enter into a haven, they run as it were downhill. And yet men are said to go down (not up) to the sea in ships, Psalms 107:23. See a reason hereof in this text and Psalms 104:26. An vero non stupendum est? saith Lavater. But is it not a wonderful thing that so fierce an element, so huge a mass of waters, tossed by the winds, should be bounded and bridled by sands, confined and kept within their prescribed place and shore? Especially if the water be (as some affirm) ten times larger than the earth, the air than the water, the fire than the air.
Until the day and night come to an end] Heb. Until the consummation of light with darkness; that is, till time shall be no more, till the end of the world, when all things shall be let loose to devastation, and the sea shall overflow the land again, as that then it shall, some would gather from this text.