By His knowledge the watery depths were broken open, and the clouds dripped with dew.
Parallel translations
- WEB By his knowledge, the depths were broken up, and the skies drop down the dew.
- KJV By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the 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, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
- Ps 65:9–12You attend to the earth and water it; with abundance You enrich it. The streams of God are full of water, for You prepare our grain by providing for the earth.
- Job 38:26–28to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,
- Job 36:27–28For He draws up drops of water which distill the rain from the mist,
- Gen 1:9And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.
- Job 38:8–11Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
- Gen 27:28May God give to you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth—an abundance of grain and new wine.
- Jer 14:22Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies alone send showers? Is this not by You, O LORD our God? So we put our hope in You, for You have done all these things.
- Gen 27:37–39But Isaac answered Esau: “Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”
- Deut 33:28So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.
- Ps 104:8–9the mountains rose and the valleys sank to the place You assigned for them—
- Joel 2:23Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for He has given you the autumn rains for your vindication. He sends you showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.
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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
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