Bible Strands
Job 5:9
the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Eliphaz, Job's first speaker, is urging his friend to appeal to God (v.8) and immediately grounds that appeal in God's inaccessibility.
The words — חֵקֶר (Che.ker, H2714), "inquiry," is the pivot: the construction "there is no inquiry" (וְאֵין חֵקֶר) is a Hebraic idiom for "beyond human reach," not merely "difficult to find."
The thread — Job 9:10 repeats the formula almost verbatim ("great things beyond searching out, wonders without number"), and Psalms 40:5 and 72:18 echo the theme of innumerable divine works.
Why it lands — The verse is not comfort; it is a boundary. It asks the reader to accept that God's actions are not subject to human audit, which in Eliphaz's mouth functions as a rebuke: stop trying to explain what you cannot reach.
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
Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:
Cross-references
- Psalms 40:5 Many, 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.
- Job 9:10 He does great things beyond searching out, and wonders without number.
- Psalms 72:18 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.
- Psalms 86:10 For You are great and perform wonders; You alone are God.
- Job 11:7 Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?
- Job 37:5 God thunders wondrously with His voice; He does great things we cannot comprehend.
- Job 26:5 The dead tremble—those beneath the waters and those who dwell in them.
- 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.
- 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 139:18 If I were to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; and when I awake, I am still with You.