One way is to can things with a simple tuple when creating a figure:
figure(..., x_range=(left, right), y_range=(bottom, top))
But you can also set the x_range and y_range properties of a created figure directly. (I had been looking for something like set_xlim or set_ylim from matplotlib.)
from bokeh.models import Range1d
fig = make_fig()
left, right, bottom, top = 3, 9, 4, 10
fig.x_range=Range1d(left, right)
fig.y_range=Range1d(bottom, top)
show(fig)