Job 11:7

Second division, double strophe THE PERFECTION OF DIVINE WISDOM NECESSITATES AN IMMEDIATE AND COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HEART, Job 11:7-12.

a. God’s wisdom is unsearchable heaven, hell, earth, and sea may be measured, but this divine wisdom knows no limits, Job 11:7-9.

7. By searching find out God Furst, Zockler in Lange, etc., read, “Canst thou reach the deep things (depths) in God;” but Umbreit, Hit-zig, (die Forschung Gottes erreichen,) Hengstenberg, etc., read substantially as in the A.V. The former interpret החקר , the depths of God. Compare 1 Corinthians 2:10, τα βαθη , the depths of God. The latter translate it, the searching of God, (Eloah,) either of which meanings the word will bear. The most satisfactory reading of the text is that of Delitzsch, Canst thou find out the nature of God “The hidden ground of God,” (Ewald,) a reading favoured by the Hebraic order of the words. To attribute to hheker the idea of search savours too much of tautology. Simonides, asked by Hiero what God is, desired a day to deliberate. When questioned the next day, he asked for two more; and after this doubled the days, until Hiero, wondering, again asked for his answer, when he replied, The longer I consider, the more obscure the subject appears to me. And Cicero declares, if asked the same question, he should follow the example of Simonides. De Nat., i, sec. 22. (Compare Romans 1:19-20. Meth. Quar. Revelation, 1869, p. 173, and In Memoriam, sec. 123.)

Almighty unto perfection Thus Conant, justified by the parallelism and the accentuation. Others interpret it, “Penetrate to the uttermost parts in the Almighty,” (Dillmann and Zockler,) a harsh reading; “canst thou arrive at the limit of God, “(Wordsworth;) “canst thou reach the perfection of the Almighty,” (Davidson and Hitzig,) both of which are questionable. (See a sermon by Archbishop Tillotson on “The Incomprehensibleness of God.”)