Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
- KJV Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
- NKJV “Canyou search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?
- NASB ¶“Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?
- NLT “Can you solve the mysteries of God? Can you discover everything about the Almighty?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Zophar asks if Job can fathom the depths of God or probe the limits of the Almighty. The question rightly affirms God's incomprehensible greatness.
Overview
Here Zophar speaks genuine truth: no one can fully search out God or measure His infinite being. The point, sound in itself, is wielded to silence Job rather than comfort him. Scripture affirms God's unsearchable depths, while the gospel reveals that this incomprehensible God has made Himself known in Christ (Romans 11:33; John 1:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Rom 11:33O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
- Eccl 3:11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.
- Ps 145:3Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable.
- Eph 3:8Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Job 5:9the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
- Job 37:23The Almighty is beyond our reach; He is exalted in power! In His justice and great righteousness He does not oppress.
- Ps 77:19Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.
- Isa 40:28Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.
- 1 Cor 2:16“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
- Job 26:14Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways; how faint is the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”
- 1 Cor 2:10But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
- Matt 11:27All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 11:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.