What Does Job 38:9 Mean in the King James?

When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,

Job 38:9 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The sea is not left as an uncontained force: it is clothed in cloud and wrapped in darkness before its boundary is spoken.

THE MEANING

You see the sea brought forth as something clothed and wrapped; cloud and thick darkness are part of its covering. What is concealed is still held in a form, and the next line names the limit around it.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that darkness means what lies within it has escaped all order.

THE ROOT

לְבוּשׁ

levush

GROWS FROM

לבש

l-b-sh

To clothe or put on.

The word for garment grows from the root meaning to clothe or put on. The sea’s cloud is not just scenery: it is what the sea wears as it emerges, while the next line gives it a boundary.

ALSO GROWS

labash: To put on or wear clothing.

לָבַשׁ

This verb shows the action inside the garment word: the sea is pictured as clothed.

hilbish: To clothe another.

הִלְבִּישׁ

This form makes the image active: the sea receives its covering rather than being left exposed.

THE PATTERN

God gives the untamed sea a covering and a boundary.

And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

Job 38:11 · KJVThe sea’s covering is followed by a spoken limit that holds back its waves.

Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

Psalm 104:9 · KJVThe waters have a boundary that keeps them from overtaking the earth.

Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which 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; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

Jeremiah 5:22 · KJVEven tossing, roaring waves remain within the boundary set for them.

THE THREAD

The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.

Psalm 93:1 · KJV

Job describes the sea as clothed in cloud; Psalm 93 uses the same root ⁨לבש⁩ (labash, to clothe or put on) for the LORD clothed with majesty and strength. The shared garment image connects the sea’s covering with the strength by which the world is established.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us