God asks 'Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band?' introducing divine action in relation to water and atmospheric phenomena. The questions shift from the distant past of creation to the establishment of boundaries and limits for natural forces. The poetic image of the sea bursting forth from the womb and being clothed with clouds and darkness suggests divine control over natural forces that could otherwise overwhelm the world. God's questions imply that Job did not perform this controlling action, could not have, and therefore should not presume to understand how divine action in natural phenomena should operate. The imagery of the sea being born and clothed suggests nurturing as well as control, suggesting that God's relation to natural forces involves care as well as dominion.

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