Look up into the sky, and see the clouds high above you.
Parallel translations
- WEB Look to the heavens, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.
- KJV Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
- 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.
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 22:12“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!
- Isa 55:9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
- Nah 1:3Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
- Isa 40:22–23It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;
- Job 25:5–6Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight;
- Gen 15:5Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So will your offspring be.”
- 1 Kgs 8:27But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I have built!
- Ps 8:3–4When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
- Job 37:22–23Out of the north comes golden splendor. With God is awesome majesty.
- Job 36:26Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
- Job 37:16Do you know the workings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?
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 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.