Bible Strands
Job 11:7
Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Zophar speaks to Job during their covenant dialogue, confronting Job’s defense with the reality of divine transcendence. The moment occurs mid-debate when human claims of righteousness are weighed against God’s unsearchable wisdom.
The words — The Hebrew תִּמְצָא (tim.Tza') translates literally as "will you find," and תַּכְלִ֖ית (takh.Lit) means "the end" or "limits." These terms construct a rhetorical question that frames human inquiry as incapable of locating a boundary for the Almighty.
The thread — This theme of unsearchable divine depth runs through Romans 11:33, Psalms 145:3, and Ecclesiastes 3:11. Each text states that human cognition cannot fully trace God’s judgments or comprehend His eternal purposes.
Why it lands — The text asks readers to abandon the presumption of mapping divine wisdom or measuring God’s boundaries. It demands intellectual humility by stating plainly that human inquiry reaches a fixed limit when confronting the Almighty’s nature.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
Cross-references
- Romans 11:33 O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
- Psalms 145:3 Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable.
- Ecclesiastes 3:11 He 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.
- Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.
- Job 5:9 the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
- Job 37:23 The Almighty is beyond our reach; He is exalted in power! In His justice and great righteousness He does not oppress.
- Psalms 77:19 Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.
- Ephesians 3:8 Though 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,
- Job 26:14 Indeed, 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?”
- Matthew 11:27 All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.