SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:12
¿Soy yo un mar, o dragón, que me pongas guarda?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Job 7:12
Verse 12. Amos i a sea, or a whale ] "Amos i condemned as the Egyptians were who were drowned in the Red Sea? or am I as Pharaoh, who was drowned in it in his sins, that thou settest a keeper over me?" Targum. Amos i as dangerous as the sea, that I should be encompassed about with barriers, lest I should hurt mankind? Amos i like an ungovernable wild beast or dragon, that I must be put under locks and bars? I think our own version less exceptionable than any other hitherto given of this verse. The meaning is sufficiently plain. Job was hedged about and shut in with insuperable difficulties of various kinds; he was entangled as a wild beast in a net; the more he struggled, the more he lost his strength, and the less probability there was of his being extricated from his present situation. The sea is shut in with barriers, over which it cannot pass; for God has "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; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it," Jer. v. 22. "For thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth;" Psa. civ. 9. "Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors; and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed;" Job xxxviii. 8. Here then is Job's allusion: the bounds, doors, garment, swaddling bands, decreed place, and bars, are the watchers or keepers which God has set to prevent the sea from overflowing the earth; so Job's afflictions and distresses were the bounds and bars which God had apparently set to prevent him from injuring his fellow creatures. At least Job, in his complaint, so takes it. Amos i like the sea, which thou hast imprisoned within bounds, ready to overwhelm and destroy the country? or am I like a dragon, which must be cooped up in the same way, that it may not have the power to kill and destroy? Surely in my prosperity I gave no evidence of such a disposition; therefore should not be treated as a man dangerous to society. In this Job shows that he will not refrain his mouth.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 7-16 - Plain truths as to the shortness and vanity of man's life, and the certainty of death, do us good, when we think and speak of them with application to ourselves. Dying is done but once, and therefore it ha need be well done. An error here is past retrieve. Other clouds arise but the same cloud never returns: so a new generation of men is raise up, but the former generation vanishes away. Glorified saints shal return no more to the cares and sorrows of their houses; nor condemne sinners to the gaieties and pleasures of their houses. It concerns u to secure a better place when we die. From these reasons Job might have drawn a better conclusion than this, I will complain. When we have but a few breaths to draw, we should spend them in the holy, graciou breathings of faith and prayer; not in the noisome, noxious breathing of sin and corruption. We have much reason to pray, that He who keep Israel, and neither slumbers nor sleeps, may keep us when we slumbe and sleep. Job covets to rest in his grave. Doubtless, this was his infirmity; for though a good man would choose death rather than sin yet he should be content to live as long as God pleases, because lif is our opportunity of glorifying him, and preparing for heaven.
Original Hebrew
הים 3220 אני 589 אם 518 תנין 8577 כי 3588 תשׂים 7760 עלי 5921 משׁמר׃ 4929
