Psalms 139:6

139:6 Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension;

it is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it. ¹ 

Job 5:9

5:9 He does ²  great and unsearchable ³  things,

marvelous things without ⁴  number; ⁵ 

Job 9:10

9:10 he does great and unsearchable things, ⁶ 

and wonderful things without number.

Job 11:7-9

11:7 “Can you discover ⁷  the essence ⁸  of God?

Can you find out ⁹ 

the perfection of the Almighty? ¹⁰ 

11:8 It is higher ¹¹  than the heavens – what can you do?

It is deeper than Sheol ¹²  – what can you know?

11:9 Its measure is longer than the earth,

and broader than the sea.

Job 26:14

26:14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! ¹³ 

How faint is the whisper ¹⁴  we hear of him!

But who can understand the thunder of his power?”

Isaiah 40:28

40:28 Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is an eternal God,

the creator of the whole earth. ¹⁵ 

He does not get tired or weary;

there is no limit to his wisdom. ¹⁶ 

Romans 11:33

11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!

[139:6]  ¹ tn Heb “too amazing [is this] knowledge for me, it is elevated, I cannot attain to it.”

[5:9]  ² tn Heb “who does.” It is common for such doxologies to begin with participles; they follow the pattern of the psalms in this style. Because of the length of the sentence in Hebrew and the conventions of English style, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[5:9]  ³ tn The Hebrew has וְאֵין חֵקֶר (vÿ’en kheqer), literally, “and no investigation.” The use of the conjunction on the expression follows a form of the circumstantial clause construction, and so the entire expression describes the great works as “unsearchable.”

[5:9]  ⁴ tn The preposition in עַד־אֵין (’ad ’en, “until there was no”) is stereotypical; it conveys the sense of having no number (see Job 9:10; Ps 40:13).

[5:9]  ⁵ sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 54) notes that the verse fits Eliphaz’s approach very well, for he has good understanding of the truth, but has difficulty in making the correct conclusions from it.

[9:10]  ⁶ tn Only slight differences exist between this verse and 5:9 which employs the simple ו (vav) conjunction before אֵין (’eyn) in the first colon and omits the ו (vav) conjunction before נִפְלָאוֹת (nifla’ot, “wonderful things”) in the second colon.

[11:7]  ⁷ tn The verb is מָצָא (matsa’, “to find; to discover”). Here it should be given the nuance of potential imperfect. And, in the rhetorical question it is affirming that Job cannot find out the essence of God.

[11:7]  ⁸ tn The word means “search; investigation”; but it here means what is discovered in the search (so a metonymy of cause for the effect).

[11:7]  ⁹ tn The same verb is now found in the second half of the verse, with a slightly different sense – “attain, reach.” A. R. Ceresko notes this as an example of antanaclasis (repetition of a word with a lightly different sense – “find/attain”). See “The Function of Antanaclasis in Hebrew Poetry,” CBQ 44 (1982): 560-61.

[11:7]  ¹⁰ tn The abstract תַּכְלִית (takhlit) from כָּלָה (kalah, “to be complete; to be perfect”) may mean the end or limit of something, perhaps to perfection. So the NIV has “can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” The LXX has: “have you come to the end of that which the Almighty has made?”

[11:8]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew says “heights of heaven, what can you do?” A. B. Davidson suggested this was an exclamation and should be left that way. But most commentators will repoint גָּבְהֵי שָׁמַיִם (govhe shamayim, “heights of heaven”) to גְּבֹהָה מִשָּׁמַיִם (gÿvohah mishamayim, “higher than the heavens”) to match the parallel expression. The LXX may have rearranged the text: “heaven is high.”

[11:8]  ¹² tn Or “deeper than hell.” The word “Sheol” always poses problems for translation. Here because it is the opposite of heaven in this merism, “hell” would be a legitimate translation. It refers to the realm of the dead – the grave and beyond. The language is excessive; but the point is that God’s wisdom is immeasurable – and Job is powerless before it.

[26:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “the ends of his ways,” meaning “the fringes.”

[26:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “how little is the word.” Here “little” means a “fraction” or an “echo.”

[40:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.

[40:28]  ¹⁶ sn Exiled Israel’s complaint (v. 27) implies that God might be limited in some way. Perhaps he, like so many of the pagan gods, has died. Or perhaps his jurisdiction is limited to Judah and does not include Babylon. Maybe he is unable to devise an adequate plan to rescue his people, or is unable to execute it. But v. 28 affirms that he is not limited temporally or spatially nor is his power and wisdom restricted in any way. He can and will deliver his people, if they respond in hopeful faith (v. 31a).