Proverbs 8:29

When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) When he gave to the sea his decree . . .—Compare the same thoughts in Job 38:4; Job 38:10-11.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:22-31 The Son of God declares himself to have been engaged in the creation of the world. How able, how fit is the Son of God to be the Saviour of the world, who was the Creator of it! The Son of God was ordained, before the world, to that great work. Does he delight in saving wretched sinners, and shall not we delight in his salvation?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A compass - Better as in the margin and Job 22:14 (see the note), i. e., the great vault of heaven stretched over the deep seas.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29. commandment—better, the shore, that is, of the sea.

foundations—figuratively denotes the solid structure (Job 38:4; Ps 24:2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

His decree; or, his bound or limits, to wit, those parts of the earth which border upon it.

Not pass his commandment, i.e. not overflow the earth.

Appointed, or laid, the foundations o the earth; either,

1. The centre of the earth; or,

2. The earth itself, which is the foundation of the world; or rather,

3. The firm standing of the earth upon its foundations, notwithstanding all the assaults which the waters of the sea or within the earth make against it; which is a singular work of God’s providence.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment,.... A perpetual decree, which never has been altered nor never will: he has placed the sand for the bounds of the sea everywhere, which it cannot pass, though its waves toss, foam, and roar; this is his decreed place, with which he has shut it up, as with doors, bars, and bolts; so that those proud waves may come hitherto and no further, Jeremiah 5:22;

when he appointed the foundations of the earth; which are laid on the seas and floods; nay, the earth is hung like a ball in the air upon nothing; and yet its foundations are such as that it shall not be removed; being the purpose and decree, the power and might, of the Lord himself, Job 26:7. Now Christ was present when those were laid, for he was concerned in the laying of them himself, Hebrews 1:10. The Lord asks Job where he was then, Job 38:4; he was not theft in being, but Christ was.

Geneva Study Bible

When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. his decree] So R.V. marg.; its bound, R.V. text. It may be doubted, however, whether the translators of A.V. did not mean, its (for which they often use his) decree, i.e. the law laid upon it by God for its observance. Terminum suum, Vulg. Comp. Job 38:8-11; Psalm 104:9.

appointed] or, marked out, R.V.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 29. - When he gave to the sea his decree (chok, as Job 28:26; Jeremiah 5:22); or, its bounds. The meaning is much the same in either case, being what is expressed in Job 38:8, etc,, "Who shut up the sea with doors...and prescribed for it my decree, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shall thou come, and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?" The LXX. omits this hemistich. When he appointed the foundations of the earth. Job 38:4, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?... Who determined the measures thereof? or who stretched the line upon it? Wherein were the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the cornerstone thereof?" Proverbs 8:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In Proverbs 8:28, Proverbs 8:29, these two features of the figure of the creation of the world return (the beginning of the firmament, and the embankment of the under waters); hence we see that the discourse here makes a fresh start with a new theme:

28 "When He made firm the ether above,

     When He restrained the fountains of the waters;

29 When He set to the sea its bounds,

     That the waters should not pass their limits

     When He settled the pillars of the earth;

30 Then was I with Him as director of the work,

     And was delighted day by day,

     Rejoicing always before Him,

31 Rejoicing in His earth,

     And having my delight in the children of men."

We have, with Symmachus, translated שׁחקים (from שׁחק, Arab. shaḳ, to grind, to make thin) by αἰθέρα, for so the fine transparent strata of air above the hanging clouds are called - a poetic name of the firmament רקיע. The making firm עמּץ is not to be understood locally, but internally of the spreading out of the firmament over the earth settled for continuance (an expression such as Psalm 78:23). In 28b the Masora notices the plur. עינות instead of עינות with לית as unicum (cf. Michlol 191a); the transition of the sound is as in גּלית from galajta. The inf. עזוז appears on the first look to require a transitive signification, as the lxx and the Targ., the Graec. Venet. and Luther (da er festiget die Brnnen der tieffen equals when He makes firm the fountains of the deep) have rendered it. Elster accordingly believes that this signification must be maintained, because בּ here introduces creative activity, and in itself is probably the transitive use of עזז, as the Arab. 'azz shows: when He set His עז against the מים עזּים (Isaiah 43:16). But the absence of the subject is in favour of the opinion that here, as everywhere else, it is intransitive; only we may not, with Hitzig, translate: when the fountains of the flood raged wildly; but, since 28b, if not a creative efficiency, must yet express a creative work, either as Ewald, with reference to מעוז, fortress: when they became firm, or better as Fleischer, with reference to מים עזים: when they broke forth with power, with strong fulness. Whether the suff. of חקּו, 29a, refers back to the sea or to Jahve, is decided after the parallel פּיו. If this word is equivalent to its coast (cf. Psalm 104:9), then both suffixes refer to the sea; but the coast of the sea, or of a river, is called שׂפה, not פּה, which only means ostium (mouth), not ora. Also Isaiah 19:7 will require to be translated: by the mouth of the Nile, and that פי, Psalm 133:2, may denote the under edge, arises from this, that a coat has a mouth above as well as below, i.e., is open. Thus both suff. are to be referred to God, and פיו d is to be determined after Job 23:12. The clause beginning with ומים corresponds in periodizing discourse to a clause with ut, Ewald, 338. בּחוּקו is the same form, only written plene, as Proverbs 8:27, בּחקו equals בּחקּו equals בּחקקו.

(Note: One might regard it as modified from בחקקו; but that שׁוּרי, Psalm 102:12, is modified from שׁררי, or הורי, Genesis 49:26, from הררי, is by no means certain.)