Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?.... The subterraneous passages through which the waters flow into the sea and supply it; or the springs and fountains that rise up at the bottom of it ; and some tell us of springs of sweet water that rise there, even though the water at the bottom of the sea is saltier than on the surface : some render it "the drops of the sea" ; hast thou considered them and counted them?
art thou able to do it? no: others the "perplexities" of it , so the Targum, the word being used in this sense, Ex 14:3; the thickets of it; some speak of woods and forests in it, See Gill on "Ex 10:19"; others "rocks" and shelves , and others the "borders" of it ; and the sense then is, hast thou entered into and travelled through the main ocean, observed the forests in it, the shelving rocks and sandy mountains in it, and gone to the utmost borders of it?
or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? to find out the deepest place of it, where no sounding line can reach ; or walked in quest of the curiosities of it, animals, plants and minerals, unknown to men; or of the riches that lie at the bottom of it, for which now the diving bell is used, but not invented and known in the times of Job; and if Job had not done and could not do all this, how should he be able to enter into the secret springs of Providence, or trace the ways of God, whose way is in the sea, and whose paths are in the great waters, and his footsteps not known?
Ps 77:19. According to Dr. Plot, the principal fountains have their origin, and are supplied with water through subterraneous passages from the sea. De Origine Fontium, &c. apud Act. Erudit. Lips. A.
M. 1685. p. 538. See Gen vii. 11. Vid. Scheucbzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 803. My ykbn "guttas maris", Tigurine version, Grotius. "Perplexitates maris", Munster. "Scopulos maris", Michaelis; "salebrosa maris", Schultens.
So Jarchi. For though the greatest depth of the sea is said by Fabianus (apud Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 2, c. 102.) to be fifteen furlongs, or near two miles, this must be understood of that part of it which is fathomable and nearer land.
But such as those, called Bathea Ponti, the depths of the Pontus, and are almost three hundred furlongs from the continent, they are said (Plin. ib.) to be of an immense depth, and the bottom not to be found.
And if the Sardinian sea, the deepest in the Mediterranean (Aristot. Meteorolog. l. 2, c. 1.) is a thousand orgies or fathoms deep, (Posidonius apud Strabo. Geograph. l. 1, p. 37.) that is, one mile and a fifth, what must the depth of the vast ocean be?