Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
- 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 brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
- Ps 145:3Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
- Job 11:7–9Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
- 1 Cor 13:12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
- Job 37:23Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict.
- Job 37:5God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.
- 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?
- Job 26:14Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?
- Ps 102:24–27I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.
- Job 10:5Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s days,
- Heb 1:12And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
- 2 Pet 3:8But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, 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.