Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 7:12

"Am I a sea, or a sea-monster, That thou settest a watch over me?" — Job 7:12 (ASV)

Am I a sea, or a whale ...? —This very hard verse, it seems most reasonable to explain, if we can, from Scripture itself.

For example, in Jeremiah 5:22 we read, “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?” The writer was probably familiar with Egypt, where the Nile, which is still called the sea, was carefully watched and guarded by dykes so that its overflow might not destroy the land.

So Job exclaims, “Am I like the sea, or one of its monsters—like that Leviathan which You have made to take his pastime in it—that You keep guard over me and make me Your prisoner continually, shutting me up on every side so securely in prison that I cannot get free?”