Bible Strands
Proverbs 3:20
By His knowledge the watery depths were broken open, and the clouds dripped with dew.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The passage addresses a son in a wisdom discourse, positioned between a declaration of God’s creative power and a command to preserve sound judgment.
The words — בְּדַעְתּוֹ (be./da'.t/o) literally means "by his knowledge," while תְּהוֹמֹת נִבְקְעוּ (te.ho.Mot niv.Ka.'u) describes the depths being split open. These terms ground the verse’s claim in divine cognition and primordial waters.
The thread — The imagery of divided waters appears in Genesis 1:9 when God gathers the waters to reveal dry land, and in Genesis 7:11 regarding the fountains of the great deep. Psalm 65:9 similarly links divine action to waters saturating the earth.
Why it lands — The text asserts that God’s knowledge directly governs cosmic order and natural provision. A reader must acknowledge that the same wisdom establishing creation is the standard for preserving discernment.
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
By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
Cross-references
- Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
- Psalms 65:9 You attend to the earth and water it; with abundance You enrich it. The streams of God are full of water, for You prepare our grain by providing for the earth.
- Genesis 1:9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.
- Genesis 27:28 May God give to you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth—an abundance of grain and new wine.
- Job 36:27 For He draws up drops of water which distill the rain from the mist,
- Job 38:8 Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
- Job 38:26 to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,
- Genesis 27:37 But Isaac answered Esau: “Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”
- Deuteronomy 33:28 So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.
- Psalms 104:8 the mountains rose and the valleys sank to the place You assigned for them—