Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
Parallel translations
- KJV Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.
- BSB Indeed, God is great—beyond our knowledge; the number of His years is unsearchable.
- NKJV “Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; Nor can the number of His years be discovered.
- NASB “Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; The number of His years is unsearchable.
- NLT “Look, God is greater than we can understand. His years cannot be counted.
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 is great beyond our knowing, and the number of His years is unsearchable. His greatness and eternity surpass human comprehension.
Overview
Elihu confesses the limits of human knowledge before God's infinite greatness and eternal existence. We truly know God yet can never fully fathom Him, for He is from everlasting (Ps. 90:2). This humble acknowledgment of God's incomprehensibility guards against pride and points to our need for revelation, given fully in Christ who makes the unknowable God known (John 1:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 90:2Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
- Ps 145:3Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is unsearchable.
- Job 11:7–9“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
- 1 Cor 13:12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
- Job 37:23We can’t reach the Almighty. He is exalted in power. In justice and great righteousness, he will not oppress.
- Job 37:5God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things, which we can’t comprehend.
- 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!
- Job 26:14Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
- Ps 102:24–27I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.
- Job 10:5Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years,
- Heb 1:12You will roll them up like a mantle, and they will be changed; but you are the same. Your years will not fail.”
- 2 Pet 3:8But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
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 36:26 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.