the sky (as aloft · noun, common masculine plural absolute
do
תִּפְעָ֑לtif.'Al
H6466
to do or make (systematically and habitually) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
deeper
עֲמֻקָּ֥ה'a.mu.Kah
H6013
deep (literally or figuratively) · adjective, feminine singular absolute
hell
מִ֝שְּׁא֗וֹלmi.she.'ol
H7585
Hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean re… · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute
know
תֵּדָֽעte.Da'
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 22:12 Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
Psalms 139:6-8 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Job 26:6 Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.
Job 35:5 Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
Psalms 148:13 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.
Amos 9:2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
2 Chronicles 6:18 But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this hous…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 11:7-12
Zophar here speaks very good things concerning God and his greatness and glory, concerning man and his vanity and folly: these two compared together, and duly considered, will have a powerful influence upon our submission to all the dispensations of the divine Providence.
I. See here what God is, and let him be adored.
1. He is an incomprehensible Being, infinite and immense, whose nature and perfections our finite understandings cannot possibly form any adequate conceptions of, and whose counsels and actings we cannot therefore, without the greatest presumption, pass a judgment upon. We that are so little acquainted with the divine nature are incompetent judges of the divine providence; and…
It--the "wisdom" of God (Job 11:6). The abruptness of the Hebrew is forcible: "The heights of heaven! What canst thou do" (as to attaining to them with thy gaze, Psa 139:8)?
know--namely, of His perfections.
John Gill on Job 11:8
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…
7 Canst thou find out the nature of Eloah,
And penetrate to the foundation of the existence of the Almighty?
8 It is as the heights of heaven-what wilt thou do?
Deeper than Hades-what canst thou know?
9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
And broader than the sea.
The majority of modern commentators erroneously translate חקר searching = comprehension, and תּכלית perfection, a meaning which this word never has. The former, indeed, signifies first in an active sense: finding out by search; and then also objectively: the object sought after: "the hidden ground" (Ewald), the depth (here and Job 38:16; also, according to Ew., Job 8:8, of the deep innermost thought). The latter denotes p…
The Church Fathers
"The sky is lost in the heights; what can you do? To discover the secrets. You must not condemn Him whose works you can not understand.
He means either, "Can you do anything similar?" or "You are a humble creature in the universe, and consequently you can do nothing; and you are as far from God as 'heaven is removed from earth.' "
He is higher than heaven, what canst thou do? Deeper than hell, what canst thou know? His measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. In that God is set forth as 'higher than heaven,' 'deeper than hell,' 'longer than the earth,' and 'broader than the sea,' this must be understood in a spiritual sense, inasmuch as it is impious to conceive any thing concerning Him after the proportions of body. Now He is 'higher than heaven,' in that He transcends all things by the Incomprehensibility of His spiritual Nature. He is 'deeper than hell,' in that in transcending He sustains beneath. He is 'longer than the earth,' in that He exceeds the measure of created being by the everlasting continuance of His Eternity. He is 'broader than the sea,' in that He so possesses the waves of temporal things in ruling them, that in confining He encompasses them beneath the every way prevailing presence of His Power. Though it is possible that by the designation of 'Heaven' the Angels may be denoted, and by the term 'hell,' the demons, while by the 'earth' the righteous, and by the 'sea' sinners are understood. Thus He is 'higher than the heaven,' in that the very Elect Spirits themselves do not perfectly penetrate the vision of His infinite loftiness. He is 'deeper than hell,' in that He judges and condemns the craft of evil spirits with far more searching exactness than they had ever thought. He is 'longer than the earth,' in that He surpasses our long-suffering by the patience of Divine long-suffering, which both bears with us in our sins, and welcomes us when we are turned from them to the rewards of His recompensing. He is 'wider than the sea,' in that he every where enters into the doings of sinners by the presence of His retributive power, so that even when He is not seen present by His appearance, He is felt present by His judgment. Yet all the particulars may be referred to man alone, so that he is Himself 'heaven,' when now in desire he is attached to things above; himself 'hell,' when he lies grovelling in things below, confounded by the mists of his temptations; himself 'earth,' in that he is made to abound in good works through the fertility of a stedfast hope; himself 'the sea,' for that on some occasions he is shaken with alarm, and agitated by the breath of his feebleness. But God is 'higher than heaven,' in that we are subdued by the mightiness of…
Dictionary and topics
Hell — Derived from the Saxon helan, to cover; hence the covered or the invisible place. In Scripture there are three words so rendered: (1.) Sheol, occurring in the Old Testament sixty-five times. This…
Hell · scriptures — scriptures
Ignorance · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
No one can discover everything about the Almighty (literally find out the limits of the Almighty), who is beyond the limits of the heavens, underworld, land, and sea (11:8-9).
Rashi on Job 11:8
[In] the heights of heaven [About] something that is as high as the heights of heaven, what can you do? And the wisdom is deeper than the grave.
