O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
Parallel translations
- WEB Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
- KJV O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
- NKJV Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
- NASB Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
- NLT Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!
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
Paul bursts into praise at the unfathomable depth of God's wisdom, knowledge, judgments, and ways.
Overview
Having traced God's plan for Jew and Gentile, Paul responds not with further argument but with worship. God's wisdom and knowledge are inexhaustible, and his judgments and ways are beyond human tracing out. This doxology models the right response to the mysteries of God's sovereign grace: humble, awe-filled adoration.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 26
- Job 5:9the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
- Job 11:7–9Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?
- Ps 92:5How great are Your works, O LORD, how deep are Your thoughts!
- Col 2:2–3that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ,
- Rom 2:4Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?
- Job 37:23The Almighty is beyond our reach; He is exalted in power! In His justice and great righteousness He does not oppress.
- Eph 3:10His purpose was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,
- Eph 1:7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
- Eccl 3:11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.
- Ps 36:6Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments are like the deepest sea. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
- Rom 9:23What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—
- Job 26:14Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways; how faint is the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”
- Eph 2:7in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
- Ps 77:19Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.
- Col 1:27To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
- Ps 40:5Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.
- Ps 97:2Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation.
- Dan 4:35All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
- Eph 3:16I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,
- Job 9:10He does great things beyond searching out, and wonders without number.
- Eph 3:8Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Ps 107:8–43Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion and His wonders to the sons of men.
- Eph 3:18will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth
- Prov 25:3As the heavens are high and the earth is deep, so the hearts of kings cannot be searched.
- Job 33:13Why do you complain to Him that He answers nothing a man asks?
- Job 37:19Teach us what we should say to Him; we cannot draw up our case when our faces are in darkness.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 11:33 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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