Job 26:10

10. He hath compassed the waters with bounds The Syriac gives a satisfactory rendering of this difficult passage thus, He hath described a circle on the face of the waters. According to some, (Rosenmuller,) the idea is, He has appointed a rotary motion of the heavens round and above the sea, by which the vicissitudes of day and night are regulated. The more simple view of Dr. A. Clarke is the more correct one, “Perhaps this refers merely to the circle of the horizon, the line that terminates light and commences darkness, called here, until the completion of light with darkness,” which Pareau renders more freely, “unto the confines of light and darkness.” The use of the word taklith, “end,” in Nehemiah 3:21, shows that the marginal rendering here is substantially correct. Comp. Job 11:7. There is no occasion for attributing to Job ancient misconceptions, (VIRGIL, Georg., 1:247,) which lasted well into the middle ages that the earth is surrounded by the ocean, on the other side of which the region of darkness begins. This view of possible misconception, held by Dillmann, Hitzig very properly scouts.