Have you entered into the springs of the sea…? inquires of Job his knowledge regarding things that are not apparent to human vision. Springs of the sea refers to the underground sources of water thought to supply the oceans. The word translated as springs occurs only here, but another form of the word is found in 28.11 and is translated as “streams.” This may be compared with “roots of the sea” used in 36.30.

Or walked in the recesses of the deep: recesses translates a word used in 11.7, “deep things,” and has the sense of “something to be explored, researched, discovered, investigated,” and so it implies here “to find out what is hidden.” It is in this sense that Revised Standard Version uses recesses of the deep; the meaning, in other words, is the hidden or mysterious depths of the ocean. New English Bible says “the unfathomable deep.” A term suggesting the hidden or unknown is better than the “bottom of the ocean” or Good News Translation “floor of the ocean.” Verse 16 may also be rendered, for example, as “Have you been to the springs that give the water to the ocean, or investigated the dark depths of the sea?” In languages in which oceans are unknown, translators may have to refer to large lakes or rivers. “Have you gone to the place where the springs form the rivers, or studied the mysteries of the deep rivers?”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .