Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
Parallel translations
- WEB Look to the heavens, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.
- BSB Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.
- NKJV Look to the heavens and see; And behold the clouds— They are higher than you.
- NASB “Look at the heavens and see; And look at the clouds—they are higher than you.
- NLT Look up into the sky, and see the clouds high above you.
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
Elihu tells Job to look up at the heavens and skies far above him. The vast heights illustrate God's exalted transcendence.
Overview
Elihu directs Job's gaze to the towering heavens to teach a lesson about God's greatness and distance above humanity. The heavens declare a Creator whose ways far surpass ours (Ps. 8:3-4; Isa. 55:9). This contemplation of God's transcendence prepares the argument that human sin or righteousness cannot diminish or augment the infinite God, who nonetheless stooped to save us in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 22:12Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
- Isa 55:9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
- Nah 1:3The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
- Isa 40:22–23It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
- Job 25:5–6Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.
- Gen 15:5And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
- 1 Kgs 8:27But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
- Ps 8:3–4When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
- Job 37:22–23Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible majesty.
- Job 36:26Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.
- Job 37:16Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 35:5 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.