They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
Parallel translations
- WEB They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?
- KJV It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?
- NKJV They are higher than heaven— what can you do? Deeper than Sheol— what can you know?
- NASB “They are as high as the heavens; what can you do? Deeper than Sheol; what can you know?
- NLT Such knowledge is higher than the heavens— and who are you? It is deeper than the underworld— what do you know?
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
God's greatness is higher than heaven and deeper than Sheol, beyond human reach. Zophar magnifies how far God exceeds our knowing.
Overview
Zophar describes God's wisdom as towering above the heavens and plunging below the depths, utterly beyond Job's grasp. The imagery rightly humbles the creature before the Creator. Yet what no one could ascend to or descend for, Christ accomplished, descending and ascending to bring God near to us (Psalm 139:8; Ephesians 4:9-10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 22:12Is not God as high as the heavens? Look at the highest stars, how lofty they are!
- Ps 139:6–8Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
- Isa 55:9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
- Ps 148:13Let them praise the name of the LORD, for His name alone is exalted; His splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
- Job 35:5Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.
- Amos 9:2Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down.
- Job 26:6Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.
- Ps 103:11For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him.
- Prov 25:2–3It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out.
- 2 Chr 6:18But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.
- Eph 3:18–19will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 11:8 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.