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Selected Verse: Job 36:26 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Job 36:26 |
King James |
Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
(Job 37:13). God's greatness in heaven and earth: a reason why Job should bow under His afflicting hand.
know him not--only in part (Job 36:25; Co1 13:12).
his years-- (Psa 90:2; Psa 102:24, Psa 102:27); applied to Jesus Christ (Heb 1:12). |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Behold, God is great, and we know him not - That is, we cannot fully comprehend him; see the notes at Job 11:7-9.
Neither can the number of his years be searched out - That is, he is eternal. The object of what is said here is to impress the mind with a sense of the greatness of God, and with the folly of attempting fully to comprehend the reason of what he does. Man is of a few days, and it is presumption in him to sit in judgment on the doings of one who is from eternity. We may here remark that the doctrine that there is an Eternal Being presiding over the universe, was a doctrine fully held by the speakers in this book - a doctrine far in advance of all that philosophy ever taught, and which was unknown for ages in the lands on which the light of revelation never shone. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
26 Behold, God is exalted-we know Him not entirely;
The number of His years, it is unsearchable.
27 For He draweth down the drops of water,
They distil as rain in connection with its mist,
28 Which the clouds do drop,
Distil upon the multitude of men.
29 Who can altogether understand the spreadings of the clouds,
The crash of His tabernacle?
The Waw of the quasi-conclusion in Job 36:26 corresponds to the Waw of the train of thought in Job 36:26 (Ges. 145, 2). מספּר שׁניו is, as the subject-notion, conceived as a nominative (vid., on Job 4:6), not as in similar quasi-antecedent clauses, e.g., Job 23:12, as an acc. of relation. שׂגּיא here and Job 37:23 occurs otherwise only in Old Testament Chaldee. In what follows Elihu describes the wondrous origin of rain. "If Job had only come," says a Midrash (Jalkut, 518), "to explain to us the matter of the race of the deluge (vid., especially Job 22:15-18), it had been sufficient; and if Elihu had only come to explain to us the matter of the origin of rain (מעשׂה ירידת גשׁמים), it had been enough." In Gesenius' Handwrterbuch, Job 36:27 is translated: when He has drawn up the drops of water to Himself, then, etc. But it is יגרע, not גּרע; and גּרע neither in Hebr. nor in Arab. signifies attrahere in sublime (Rosenm.), but only attrahere (root גר) and detrahere; the latter signification is the prevailing one in Hebr. (Job 15:8; Job 36:7). With כּי the transcendent exaltation of the Being who survives all changes of creation is shown by an example: He draws away (draws off, as it were) the water-drops, viz., from the waters that are confined above on the circle of the sky, which pass over us as mist and cloud (vid., Genesis, S. 107); and these water-drops distil down (זקק, to ooze, distil, here not in a transitive but an intransitive signification, since the water-drops are the rain itself) as rain, לאדו, with its mist, i.e., since a mist produced by it (Gen 2:6) fills the expanse (רקיע), the downfall of which is just this rain, which, as Job 36:28 says, the clouds (called שׁחקים on account of its thin strata of air, in distinction from the next mist-circle) cause to flow gently down upon the multitude of men, i.e., far and wide over the mass of men who inhabit the district visited by the rain; both verbs are used transitively here, both נזל as Isa 45:8, and רעף, as evidently Pro 3:20. אף אם, Job 36:29, commences an intensive question: moreover, could one understand = could one completely understand; which certainly, according to the sense, is equivalent to: how much less (אף כּי). אם is, however, the interrogative an, and אף אם corresponds to האף in the first member of the double question, Job 34:17; Job 40:8. מפרשׂי are not the burstings, from פּרשׂ = פּרס, frangere, findere, but spreadings, as Eze 27:7 shows, from פּרשׂ, expandere, Psa 105:39, comp. supra on Job 36:9. It is the growth of the storm-clouds, which collect often from a beginning "small as a man's hand" (Kg1 18:44), that is intended; majestic omnipotence conceals itself behind these as in a סכּה (Psa 18:12) woven out of thick branches; and the rolling thunder is here called the crash (תּשׁאות, as Job 39:7, is formed from שׁוא, to rumble, whence also שׁואה, if it is not after the form גּולה, migration, exile, from שׁאה morf ,, vid., on Job 30:3) of this pavilion of clouds in which the Thunderer works. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Neither - He is eternal, as in his being, so in all his counsels; which therefore must be infinitely above the comprehension of short - lived men. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
God is great - He is omnipotent.
We know him not - He is unsearchable.
Neither can the number of his years be searched out - He is eternal.
These three propositions are an ample foundation for endless disquisition. As to paraphrase and comment, they need none in this place; they are too profound, comprehensive, and sublime. |
12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
25 Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off.
13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
7 Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?
9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
3 For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.
7 He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.
12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.
44 And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.
9 Then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.
39 He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night.
7 Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.
8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
17 Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn him that is most just?
29 Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
20 By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
28 Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted.
8 Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
27 For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:
15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
16 Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
17 Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
18 Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
23 Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict.
12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.
26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.