Who hast shackled the sea by thy word of command: Shackled the sea means “confined it.” Compare Job 38.8-11; Psa 104.9. Thy word of command is a word that commands, hence, a command. Good News Translation dispenses with the metaphor of shackling or fettering the sea, and makes the sea, rather than God, the subject of this clause: “The sea obeys your command and never overflows its bounds.” The idea of “obeys” is implicit in the Greek, and so it is legitimate to use it in a translation as Good News Translation does, but no such verb is explicitly given.

Who hast confined the deep: This line is parallel to the preceding one. The Greek word for deep here is literally “abyss,” which in the Greek version of Genesis is found in Gen 1.2; 7.11; and 8.2. It refers to the waters beneath the earth. (Compare Rev 20.3, where this word is rendered “pit.” Even the Greek words rendered confined and sealed are used in this passage.) Here it is parallel to sea, but “ocean depths” in Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version is an imaginative way of rendering it. Confined is identical in meaning to shackled in the first line. Translators who are translating this book as poetry must decide whether these two parallel statements will be natural style in their language (see the discussion on the translation of poetry in “Translating Baruch,” pages 3-5).

And sealed it with thy terrible and glorious name: The awesome name of God, standing for God himself, is what has bound the sea. It is parallel to God’s word of command in the first line of the verse. Good News Translation once again restructures so that God is not the subject, but rather “The power of your … name.” “Keeps … in their place” translates both confined and sealed. Terrible means that God’s name strikes terror even in the deepest part of the ocean, so we may alternatively express this line as “The power of your marvelous [or, wonderful] name strikes terror in the ocean depths” or “… causes the deepest part of the ocean to shake with terror.”

The imagery used in this verse no doubt originates with an observation of the tides, coming in and going out, claiming the land and then giving it up. It is as if the ocean were some malevolent force seeking to overcome the land, but God’s power keeps it constantly in check. He has bound it (shackled), locked it in (confined), and sealed shut its prison door.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

When you give the command,
the sea stays in its place.
The power of your marvelous name
causes the deepest parts of the ocean
to shake with terror.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see