By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
Parallel translations
- WEB By his knowledge, the depths were broken up, and the skies 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, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
- Ps 65:9–12Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.
- Job 38:26–28To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
- Job 36:27–28For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:
- Gen 1:9And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
- Job 38:8–11Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
- Gen 27:28Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:
- Jer 14:22Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.
- Gen 27:37–39And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?
- Deut 33:28Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.
- Ps 104:8–9They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
- Joel 2:23Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
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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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