By his knowledge, the depths were broken up, and the skies drop down the dew.
Parallel translations
- KJV By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
- BSB By His knowledge the watery depths were broken open, and the clouds dripped with dew.
- NKJV By His knowledge the depths were broken up, And clouds drop down the dew.
- NASB By His knowledge the ocean depths were burst open, And the clouds drip with dew.
- NLT By his knowledge the deep fountains of the earth burst forth, and the dew settles beneath the night sky.
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
By God's knowledge the deeps burst open and the clouds drop dew. Creation's order and ongoing provision flow from divine wisdom.
Overview
Completing the creation theme, the verse may allude both to the springs of the deep (cf. Gen 7:11) and to the gentle, life-giving dew that sustains the land. God's knowledge governs both the dramatic and the everyday workings of nature. The wise person trusts the God whose understanding upholds and provides for the world.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Gen 7:11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were burst open, and the sky’s windows were opened.
- Ps 65:9–12You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it.
- Job 38:26–28To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man;
- Job 36:27–28For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,
- Gen 1:9God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
- Job 38:8–11“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,
- Gen 27:28God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.
- Jer 14:22Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
- Gen 27:37–39Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants. I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then will I do for you, my son?”
- Deut 33:28Israel dwells in safety; the fountain of Jacob alone, In a land of grain and new wine. Yes, his heavens drop down dew.
- Ps 104:8–9The mountains rose, the valleys sank down, to the place which you had assigned to them.
- Joel 2:23“Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh, your God; for he gives you the former rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain, as before.
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
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 3:20 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.