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Job 11:8

It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?

It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do?.... Or, "is higher than the heavens" {i}; either the wisdom of God and the secrets of it; the perfection of his wisdom, by which he has made the heavens; or evangelical wisdom, hid in his heart, and which the highest of creatures, the angels, come at the knowledge of only by revelation; and therefore, what can man do to find it out, unless God reveals it? or wisdom displayed in dark providences, which can never be accounted for until the judgments of God are made manifest: or else, "he that is God", as the Vulgate Latin version, is "higher than the heavens"; the heaven is his throne on which he sits, and therefore he must be higher than that; the heavens, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain him; he fills up the infinite space beyond them; how is it possible therefore to find him out, to comprehend him?

deeper than hell; what canst thou know? meaning, neither the grave nor the place of the damned, for both which "Sheol" is sometimes used, but the centre or lowest part of the earth; there is a depth in God, in his essence, in his thoughts, in his wisdom, displayed in nature, providence, and grace, that is unfathomable; we can know nothing of it but what he is pleased to make known; see Psalms 92:5; the Targum of the verse is,

"in the height of heaven, what canst thou do? in the law, which is deeper than hell, what canst thou know?''


{i} Mymv yhbg "altior est altissimis coelis", Junius & Tremellius.

 

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