Psalms 40:5

40:5 O Lord, my God, you have accomplished many things;

you have done amazing things and carried out your purposes for us. ¹ 

No one can thwart you! ² 

I want to declare them and talk about them,

but they are too numerous to recount! ³ 

Psalms 139:17-18

139:17 How difficult it is for me to fathom your thoughts about me, O God! ⁴ 

How vast is their sum total! ⁵ 

139:18 If I tried to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand.

Even if I finished counting them,

I would still have to contend with you. ⁶ 

Psalms 145:3-12

145:3 The Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise!

No one can fathom his greatness! ⁷ 

145:4 One generation will praise your deeds to another,

and tell about your mighty acts! ⁸ 

145:5 I will focus on your honor and majestic splendor,

and your amazing deeds! ⁹ 

145:6 They will proclaim ¹⁰  the power of your awesome acts!

I will declare your great deeds!

145:7 They will talk about the fame of your great kindness, ¹¹ 

and sing about your justice. ¹² 

145:8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate;

he is patient ¹³  and demonstrates great loyal love. ¹⁴ 

145:9 The Lord is good to all,

and has compassion on all he has made. ¹⁵ 

145:10 All he has made will give thanks to the Lord.

Your loyal followers will praise you.

145:11 They will proclaim the splendor of your kingdom;

they will tell about your power,

145:12 so that mankind ¹⁶  might acknowledge your mighty acts,

and the majestic splendor of your kingdom.

Job 5:9

5:9 He does ¹⁷  great and unsearchable ¹⁸  things,

marvelous things without ¹⁹  number; ²⁰ 

Job 26:14

26:14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! ²¹ 

How faint is the whisper ²²  we hear of him!

But who can understand the thunder of his power?”

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!

Ephesians 1:19

1:19 and what is the incomparable ²³  greatness of his power toward ²⁴  us who believe, as displayed in ²⁵  the exercise of his immense strength. ²⁶ 

Ephesians 3:18

3:18 you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ²⁷ 

[40:5]  ¹ tn Heb “many things you have done, you, O Lord my God, your amazing deeds and your thoughts toward us.” The precise meaning of the text is not clear, but the psalmist seems to be recalling the Lord’s miraculous deeds on Israel’s behalf (see Pss 9:1; 26:7), as well as his covenantal decrees and promises (see Ps 33:11).

[40:5]  ² tn Heb “there is none arrayed against you.” The precise meaning of the text is unclear, but the collocation עָרַךְ אֶל (’arakh ’el, “array against”) is used elsewhere of military (Judg 20:30; 1 Chr 19:17) or verbal opposition (Job 32:14).

[40:5]  ³ tn Heb “I will declare and I will speak, they are too numerous to recount.” The present translation assumes that the cohortatives are used in a hypothetical manner in a formally unmarked conditional sentence, “Should I try to declare [them] and speak [of them]…” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). For other examples of cohortatives in the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, see GKC 320 §108.e. (It should be noted, however, that GKC understands this particular verse in a different manner. See GKC 320 §108.f, where it is suggested that the cohortatives are part of an apodosis with the protasis being suppressed.) Another option is to take the cohortatives as a declaration of the psalmist’s resolve to announce the truth expressed in the next line. In this case one might translate: “I will declare and speak [the truth]: They are too numerous to recount.”

[139:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “and to me how precious are your thoughts, O God.” The Hebrew verb יָקַר (yaqar) probably has the sense of “difficult [to comprehend]” here (see HALOT 432 s.v. יקר qal.1 and note the use of Aramaic יַקִּר in Dan 2:11). Elsewhere in the immediate context the psalmist expresses his amazement at the extent of God’s knowledge about him (see vv. 1-6, 17b-18).

[139:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “how vast are their heads.” Here the Hebrew word “head” is used of the “sum total” of God’s knowledge of the psalmist.

[139:18]  ⁶ tc Heb “I awake and I [am] still with you.” A reference to the psalmist awaking from sleep makes little, if any, sense contextually. For this reason some propose an emendation to הֲקִצּוֹתִי (haqitsoti), a Hiphil perfect form from an otherwise unattested verb קָצַץ (qatsats) understood as a denominative of קֵץ (qets, “end”). See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 252-53.

[145:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “and concerning his greatness there is no searching.”

[145:4]  ⁸ tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 4 are understood as imperfects, indicating how the psalmist expects his audience to respond to his praise. Another option is to take the forms as jussives, indicating the psalmist’s wish, “may one generation praise…and tell about.”

[145:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “the splendor of the glory of your majesty, and the matters of your amazing deeds I will ponder.”

[145:6]  ¹⁰ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as an imperfect, indicating how the psalmist expects his audience to respond to his praise. Another option is to take the forms as a jussive, indicating the psalmist’s wish, “may they proclaim.”

[145:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the fame of the greatness of your goodness.”

[145:7]  ¹² tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 7 are understood as imperfects, indicating how the psalmist expects his audience to respond to his praise. Another option is to take the forms as jussives, indicating the psalmist’s wish, “may they talk…and sing.”

[145:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Pss 86:15; 103:8).

[145:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Pss 86:15; 103:8).

[145:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and his compassion is over all his works.”

[145:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the sons of man.”

[5:9]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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.

[26:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “the ends of his ways,” meaning “the fringes.”

[26:14]  ²² tn Heb “how little is the word.” Here “little” means a “fraction” or an “echo.”

[1:19]  ²³ tn Or “immeasurable, surpassing”

[1:19]  ²⁴ tn Or “for, to”

[1:19]  ²⁵ tn Grk “according to.”

[1:19]  ²⁶ tn Grk “according to the exercise of the might of his strength.”

[3:18]  ²⁷ sn The object of these dimensions is not stated in the text. Interpreters have suggested a variety of referents for this unstated object, including the cross of Christ, the heavenly Jerusalem (which is then sometimes linked to the Church), God’s power, the fullness of salvation given in Christ, the Wisdom of God, and the love of Christ. Of these interpretations, the last two are the most plausible. Associations from Wisdom literature favor the Wisdom of God, but the immediate context favors the love of Christ. For detailed discussion of these interpretive options, see A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians (WBC), 207-13, who ultimately favors the love of Christ.