Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?
Why dost thou deny me the comfort of care-assuaging sleep? Why scarest thou me with frightful dreams?
Am I, then, a sea - regarded in Old Testament poetry us a violent rebel against God, the Lord of nature, who therefore curbs his violence "I 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" (Jeremiah 5:22, etc., cf. Daniel 7:2; Revelation 21:1); or
A whale - (or some other sea monster х taniyn (H8577)], 'dragon that is in the sea;' crocodile, Isaiah 27:1), that thou needest thus to watch and curb me? The Egyptians "watched" the crocodile most carefully, to prevent its doing mischief. Am I, a poor frail man, so dangerous an object as to need, like the sea, to be kept within bounds by mighty barriers? or, like a sea monster, needing to be beset with miseries as watches?
Verse 13. Ease - literally, 'bear a part of;' so alleviate. Verse 14. Thou scarest me. The frightful dreams resulting from elephantiasis he attributes to God: the common belief assigned all night visions to God.