Psalms 77:19

77:19 You walked through the sea; ¹ 

you passed through the surging waters, ² 

but left no footprints. ³ 

Psalms 92:5

92:5 How great are your works, O Lord!

Your plans are very intricate! ⁴ 

Job 11:7-9

11:7 “Can you discover ⁵  the essence ⁶  of God?

Can you find out ⁷ 

the perfection of the Almighty? ⁸ 

11:8 It is higher ⁹  than the heavens – what can you do?

It is deeper than Sheol ¹⁰  – what can you know?

11:9 Its measure is longer than the earth,

and broader than the sea.

Job 37:23

37:23 As for the Almighty, ¹¹  we cannot attain to him!

He is great in power,

but justice ¹²  and abundant righteousness he does not oppress.

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. ¹³ 

He does not get tired or weary;

there is no limit to his wisdom. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 12:1

12:1 Lord, you have always been fair

whenever I have complained to you. ¹⁵ 

However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. ¹⁶ 

Why are wicked people successful? ¹⁷ 

Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?

Matthew 11:25-26

Jesus’ Invitation

11:25 At that time Jesus said, ¹⁸  “I praise ¹⁹  you, Father, Lord ²⁰  of heaven and earth, because ²¹  you have hidden these things from the wise ²²  and intelligent, and revealed them to little children. 11:26 Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. ²³ 

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!

[77:19]  ¹ tn Heb “in the sea [was] your way.”

[77:19]  ² tn Heb “and your paths [were] in the mighty waters.”

[77:19]  ³ tn Heb “and your footprints were not known.”

[92:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “very deep [are] your thoughts.” God’s “thoughts” refer here to his moral design of the world, as outlined in vv. 6-15.

[11:7]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.

[37:23]  ¹¹ tn The name “Almighty” is here a casus pendens, isolating the name at the front of the sentence and resuming it with a pronoun.

[37:23]  ¹² tn The MT places the major disjunctive accent (the atnach) under “power,” indicating that “and justice” as a disjunctive clause starting the second half of the verse (with ESV, NASB, NIV, NLT). Ignoring the Masoretic accent, NRSV has “he is great in power and justice.”

[40:28]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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).

[12:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Lord, you are fair when I present my case before you.”

[12:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “judgments” or “matters of justice.” For the nuance of “complain to,” “fair,” “disposition of justice” assumed here, see BDB 936 s.v. רִיב Qal.4 (cf. Judg 21:22); BDB 843 s.v. צַדִּיק 1.d (cf. Ps 7:12; 11:7); BDB 1049 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 1.f (cf. Isa 26:8; Ps 10:5; Ezek 7:27).

[12:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Why does the way [= course of life] of the wicked prosper?”

[11:25]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “At that time, answering, Jesus said.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

[11:25]  ¹⁹ tn Or “thank.”

[11:25]  ²⁰ sn The title Lord is an important name for God, showing his sovereignty, but it is interesting that it comes next to a reference to the Father, a term indicative of God’s care. The two concepts are often related in the NT; see Eph 1:3-6.

[11:25]  ²¹ tn Or “that.”

[11:25]  ²² sn See 1 Cor 1:26-31.

[11:26]  ²³ tn Grk “for (to do) thus was well-pleasing before you,” BDAG 325 s.v. ἔμπροσθεν 1.b.δ; speaking of something taking place “before” God is a reverential way of avoiding direct connection of the action to him.