Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 37:23
[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.
23. According to the original the members of the verse stand thus;
The Almighty! we cannot find him out; who is great in power,
And in justice and fulness of righteousness: he will not afflict.
The connexion shews that afflict has the sense of afflict unjustly, or oppress. Taken thus the verse has a certain halting movement. Hence others take the word “afflict” in the sense of wrest or do violence to, rendering the second clause, and justice and fulness of righteousness he will not pervert (Ew.).
Elihu returns here at the end of his discourse to the thought of God with which he started, ch. Job 36:5, “Behold God is mighty, and despiseth not any.” This is the thought of God that fills all his discourses; God’s power is ever conjoined with righteousness, and He unjustly afflicts or oppresses none.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
23, 24. Elihu sums up his teaching regarding the greatness of God, which is ever conjoined with righteousness. It is befitting men, therefore, not to judge Him, but to fear Him, for He regards not them that are wise in their own understanding.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out – See the notes at Job 11:7-9. This sentiment accords with all that Elihu had said, and indeed is what he designed particularly to enforce. But it has a special emphasis here, where God is seen approaching in visible splendor, encompassed with clouds and tempests, and seated on a throne of burnished gold. Such a God, Elihu says, it was impossible to comprehend. His majesty was overwhelming, The passage is much more impressive and solemn, and accords much better with the original, by omitting the words which our translators have introduced and printed in italics. It would then be,
The Almighty! – We cannot find him out!
Great in power, and in justice, and in righteouness!
Thus, it expresses the overwhelming emotion, the awe, the alarm produced on the mind of one who saw God approaching in the sublimity of the storm.
He is excellent in power – He excels, or is vast and incomprehensible in power.
And in judgment – That is, in justice.
And in plenty of justice – Hebrew, in multitude of righteousness. The meaning is, that there was an overflowing fulness of righteousness; his character was entirely righteous, or that trait abounded in him.
He will not afflict – Or, he will not oppress, he will not crush. It was true that he did afflict people, but the idea is, that there was not harshness or oppression in it. He would not do it for the mere sake of producing affliction, or when it was not deserved. Some manuscipts vary the reading here so as to mean he will not answer; that is, he will not give any account of what he does. The change has relation only to the points, but the above is the usual interpretation, and accords well with the connection.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 37:23
Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out.
An unknown quantity
It is well that there should be an immeasurable and unknown quantity in life and in creation. Even the unknown has its purposes to serve; rightly received, it will heighten veneration; it will reprove unholy ambition; it will teach man somewhat of what he is, of what he can do and can not do, and therefore may save him from the wasteful expenditure of a good deal of energy. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out. All space leads up to the infinite. There comes a time when men can measure no longer; they throw down their instrument, and say, This is useless; we are but adding cypher to cypher, and we can proceed no further. Space has run up into infinity, and infinity cannot be measured. Nearly all the words, the greater words, that we use in our thinking and converse, run up into religious greatness. Take the word time. We reckon time in minutes and hours, in days and weeks and months and years and centuries, and we have gone so far as to speak of millenniums; but we soon tire; arithmetic can only help us to a certain point. Here again we draw up the measuring line or calculating standard, and we say, It is useless, for time has passed into eternity. These are facts in philosophy and in science, in nature and in experience,–space rising into infinity; time ascending into eternity: the foot of the ladder is upon earth, but the head of the ladder is lost in infinite distance. Take the word love. To what uses we put it! We call it by tuneful names; it charms us, it dissipates our solitude, it creates for us companionship, interchange of thought, reciprocation of trust, so that one life helps another, completing it in a thousand ways, great or small. But there comes a point even in love where contemplation can go no further; there it rests–yea, there it expires, for love has passed into sacrifice; it has gone up by way of the Cross. Always in some minor degree there has been a touch of sacrifice in every form of love, but all these minor ways have culminated in the last tragedy, the final crucifixion, and love has died for its object. So space has gone into infinity, time into eternity, love into sacrifice. Now take the word man. Does the term terminate in itself–is the term man all we know of being? We have spoken of spirit, angel, archangel; rationally or poetically, or by inspiration, we have thought of seraphim and cherubim, mighty winged ones, who burn and sing before the eternal throne, and still we have felt that there was something remaining beyond, and man is ennobled, glorified, until he passes into the completing term–God. They, therefore, are superficial and foolish who speak of space, time, love, man, as if these were self-completing terms; they are but the beginnings of the real thought, little vanishing signs, disappearing when the real thing signified comes into view, falling before it into harmonious and acceptable preparation and homage. So then, faith may be but the next thing after reason. It may be difficult to distinguish sometimes as to where reason stops and faith begins; but faith has risen before it, round about it; faith is indebted to reason; without reason there could have been no faith. Why not, therefore, put reason down amongst the terms, and so complete for the present our category, and say, space, time, love, man, reason,–for there comes a point in the ascent of reason where reason itself tires, and says, May I have wings now? I can walk no longer, I can run no more; and yet how much there is to be conquered, compassed, seized, and enjoyed! and when reason so prays, what if reason be transfigured into faith, and if we almost see the holy image rising to become more like the Creator, and to dwell more closely and lovingly in His presence? All the great religious terms, then, have what may be called roots upon the earth, the sublime words from which men often fall back in almost ignorant homage amounting to superstition. Begin upon the earth; begin amongst ourselves; take up our words and show their real meaning, and give a hint of their final issue. He who lives so, will have no want of companionship; the mind that finds in all these human, social, alphabetical signs of great religious quantities and thoughts, will have riches unsearchable, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Why dwarf our words? Why deplete them of their richer and more vital meanings? Why not rather follow them in an ascending course, and rejoice in their expansion, and in their riches? The religious teacher is called upon to operate in this direction, so far as he can influence the minds of his hearers; it is not his to take out of words all their best significations, but rather to charge every human term with some greater thought, to find in every word a seed, in every seed a harvest, it may be of wheat, it may be of other food, but always meant for the satisfaction and strengthening of our noblest nature. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The inscrutable
Inscrutable–first connect this word with two other words, responsibility and goodness. Did you say that only decrees that are indicated by overwhelming misfortunes are inscrutable? Why, everything, the simplest, runs towards and finally runs into the inscrutable. The more we know the more are we brought into consciousness of the unknown, of the unknowable. Behold, we know not anything, says the poet, and as he contemplates the good that shall fall at last–far off–at last, to all, he adds, So runs my dream: but what am I? Ah, there is the inscrutable thing. What am I? What are you? Is not each of us an enigma? What strange, various, sometimes contradictory, opposing, conflicting influences and forces have gone to make us the curious bundles of inconsistencies that we are! Heredity, circumstances, companionships, and so on, we say, have all gone to mould us, to cabin us, to confine us, to expand us, or to contract us; to constitute, to define our liberty. Myself–thyself, that is the inscrutable. And yet, for thyself thou art responsible! Whatever theorists may argue or however they may talk, society–the world–holds a man responsible for himself, the inscrutable. That it is the inscrutable does not deny the responsibility. Neither does it with regard to the world in general. At every point we feel ourselves fall against the inscrutable. There is not a day, there is not a condition in life in which we are not brought face to face with that which we cannot understand. Everywhere, and in all things there is the inscrutable, and there is a responsibility for the world. There is somewhere a will that is responsible for it. There is a government in it. The world is a charge to some will, because if there is one thing that asserts itself in this world it is will power. Things may be very strange, and they often are so strange that we get bewildered, even frightened; but the very strangest thing that could be, that which is disowned by the whole universe, by a certain stream of tendency that runs through the whole universe, would be that it is all a disorder, a blind drive and drift. Most certainly it is not that. If you realise that you are responsible for the mass of inscrutability that you call yourself, why should you hesitate to recognise that there is providence–that is, a mind supremely responsible for the wide, vast inscrutableness which we call the world? But are not the inscrutable decrees which make it hard to submit incompatible with a perfect goodness? Ah, you are putting a question on which treatises without number have been written since the world began, and treatises without number may be written still, and the question puzzle on. It is one not to be discussed now. Only, I pray you to note two things. There is always a voice whispering that goodness will have the last word, even in what is overwhelming. An appalling calamity happens. Yes, Terrible, terrible, you say; but that appalling calamity calls attention–attention that would not have been called if it had not been appalling–to evils that can be remedied and should be remedied. It sets people in motion for remedies. There is immediate suffering, and it may be on even a terrible scale, but there is immediate gain, on a far greater scale, for the world. The prince cut off in the flower of his age, your boy taken away in the flower of his days–ah, broken hearts, indeed; but see how this young prince, taken away, has preached to the whole nation, he has united the empire in a wonderful sympathy, and so from a wide induction it might be proved temporal loss transformed into spiritual and moral gains. Even when you feel that the iron hand of judgment has descended terribly, there is a touch of the velvet in that hand which speaks of mercy. And further, when you speak of perfect goodness, remember that you and I do not know what perfect goodness is. We know only in part. Our point of view is that of very limited conception. We speak of nature, but who knows all nature? We speak of providence, but who knows all providence? We would need to bring in eternity, the eternity in which God works. But one full of promise, cut off in the flower of his age! Well, well. But does not this suggest that a promise cannot be lost? Nothing–nothing is lost. Potencies are not destroyed. There is a potency in that life which surely, surely is not annihilated. May not the call hence be a way of bidding the young man arise into a higher and nobler royalty? And those bereaved, may it not be a way of purifying and cleansing in the fire, bidding them to arise and live more earnestly, and live more nobly, and grasp the crown of life which the Lord has promised? We cannot tell all that perfect goodness means. The surgeon hesitates not to thrust his knife into the quivering flesh, and the poor patient cries. It is agony, but agony for future blessing; and so is there not many an agony for a future blessing, with an eternal weight of glory before it? Ah, we must be still, or if not still we must stretch hands of faith, lame hands of faith, and gather dust and chaff, and call to what we feel is Lord of all. (J. M. Lang, D. D.)
God a mystery
Ignorance of the modes of the Divine operation forms no ground for doubting the Divine intervention in human affairs. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out, because our faculties are unable to comprehend infinity; but this disability no more warrants us in questioning the fact of His active providence, than would the mystery of the works of a watch warrant us in denying their existence or active operations. Consider this remark of Elihu in reference to the Almighty. As to His being. Its nature is wrapt in impenetrable mystery. We know that God is a Spirit, but what a spirit is we know not. Our ideas on this subject are negative; we know what a spirit is not. In the Scriptures no attempt is made to define the Divine nature. It is described only by its attributes and perfections. But as to the Divine attributes, we are in equal ignorance. We call God omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, infinite; but all we can understand by these terms is, that He is not limited as to power, knowledge, time, and space. Nor are we much more enlightened as to the work of creation. With the broad fact we are acquainted, but of the mode we know nothing. But how matter came into existence, and the mode by which it was formed into these various shapes, we are entirely ignorant. If we presume to penetrate the ways of providence, we find ourselves equally involved. Beyond the bare fact we are lost. God is shrouded in mystery. And what is life? Of what is it composed? Where does it reside? On what combinations does it depend? How untraceable are the dispensations of providence as to the affairs of men! The history of the world is an enigma. Nor is God less concealed in the operations of grace. And the mode in which Christianity has been propagated is full of mystery. As to the future, we are in almost equal ignorance. Think also of the permission of evil in the world; the condition of the soul in its intermediate state; and of humanity after judgment. What our text teaches is, that ignorance of the mode of the providential dispensations forms no justification for disbelief of their Divine origin, nor for doubts of their equity. Many things are mysterious, because too abstruse for our faculties; but assuredly God is originating and directing them in a spirit of wisdom and goodness, which will make them issue in benefit to all. The more mysterious the Almighty is, the more we are bidden to study Him. His works and His Word are the deep things of God, of which a superficial reading is worse than useless. What subjects there are for meditation! The grandest and most interesting beyond all others–subjects which concern the High and Mighty One, creation, providence, grace, the things of time and eternity, life, death, and resurrection–subjects which even the angels desire to look into. But let our studies be conducted with cautious reverence. Generally, freedom of inquiry is safe; but there are points into which it is dangerous to pry. Usually, all facts are open to inspection, but not speculation on mode and means. (J. Budgeon, M. A.)
Inscrutable providence
It is no uncommon thing in these times to hear people saying that it seemed as if God was careless–as if He had forgotten His people. Men call upon God, but call upon Him to all appearance in vain. He does not hear them; at least, no answer comes. But God did hear, and did answer. There is mystery regarding the why of Gods working, and there is mystery regarding the how. We cannot explain the one or the other. The path is invisible to us; but the path is there. Chemists and students of nature generally hold that there is nothing in nature deserving the name of providence; that force is eternal and that all things go on in obedience to immutable law. But these students of nature presume too much. It is a way they have. Self-conceit has made them blind. There is much in nature which they do not know, and much which they can not know. Can they indicate the lightnings track or trace the course of the wind? Even admitting that science has made a change in mens minds regarding material phenomena, what is to be said of the mind itself? Why was George Washington saved amid the wreck of Braddocks command? What if Major Andre had not been captured? How different the history of those later years if General Grant had been shot at Belmont! At that critical moment of the cornfield what restrained the hands of the Confederates that they did not fire? And at a brief period thereafter what tempted him to leave his tent and thus avoid the fatal bullet? What is it that so miraculously preserves the equality of the sexes? But these are stray examples of which there are millions. There is mystery everywhere. There are three things which it is well always to bear in mind when thinking of the ways of God. First, God may interfere in the affairs of the world without men knowing it; second, God may influence motives without men knowing it; third, God may touch the secret and subtle springs of nature without men knowing it. Experience is a better teacher than science. (Judson Sage, D. D.)
He is excellent in power, and in judgment.—
God excellent
He is excellent . . . in judgment. Is there any judgment displayed in the distribution of things? Is the globe ill-made? Are all things in chaos? Is there anywhere the sign of a plummet line, a measuring tape? Are things apportioned as if by a wise administrator? How do things fit one another? Who has hesitated to say that the economy of nature, so far as we know it, is a wondrous economy? Explain it as men may, we all come to a common conclusion, that there is a marvellous fitness of things, a subtle relation and interrelation, a harmony quite musical, an adaptation which though it could never have been invented by our reason, instantly secures the sanction of our understanding as being good, fit, and wholly wise. And in plenty of justice. Now Elihu touches the moral chord. It is most noticeable that throughout the whole of the Bible the highest revelations are sustained by the strongest moral appeals. If the Bible dealt only in ecstatic contemplations, in religious musings, in poetical romances, we might rank it with other sacred books, and pay it what tribute might be due to fine literary inventiveness and expression; but whatever there may be in the Bible supernatural, transcendental, mysterious, there is also judgment, right, justice: everywhere evil is burned with unquenchable fire, and right is commended and honoured as being of the quality of God. The moral discipline of Christianity sustains its highest imaginings. Let there be no divorce between what is spiritual in Christianity and what is ethical,–between the revelation sublime and the justice concrete, social, as between man and man; let the student keep within his purview all the parts and elements of this intricate revelation, and then let him say how the one balances the other, and what cooperation and harmony result from the interrelation of metaphysics, spiritual revelations, high imaginings, and simple duty, and personal sacrifice, industry as of stewardship, of trusteeship. This is the view which Elihu takes. God to him was excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice; He will not afflict. A curious expression this, and differently rendered. Some render it, He will not answer; or, He will not be called upon to answer for His ways; He will give an account of Himself to none; there is a point beyond which He will not permit approach. Yet the words as they stand in the Authorised Version are supported by many collateral passages, and therefore may be taken as literal in this instance. He will not willingly afflict; He is no tyrant; He is not a despot who drinks the wine of blood, and thrives on the miseries of His creation: when He chastens it is that He may purify and ennoble the character, and bring before the vision of man lights and promises which otherwise would escape his attention. Affliction as administered by God is good; sorrow has its refining and enriching uses. The children of God are indeed bowed down, sorely chastened, visited by disappointments; oftentimes they lay their weary heads upon pillows of thorns. Nowhere is that denied in the Bible; everywhere is it patent in our own open history; and yet Christianity has so wrought within us, as to its very spirit and purpose, that we can accept affliction as a veiled angel, and sorrow as one of Gods night angels, coming to us in cloud and gloom, and yet in the darkest sevenfold midnight of loneliness whispering to us Gospel words, and singing to us in tender, minor tones as no other voice ever sang to the orphaned heart. Christians can say this; Christians do say this. They say it not the less distinctly because there are men who mock them. They must take one of two courses; they must follow out their own impressions and realisations of spiritual ministry within the heart; or they must, forsooth, listen to men who do not know them, and allow their piety to be sneered away, and their deepest spiritual realisations to be mocked out of them, or carried away by some wind of fools laughter. They have made up their minds to be more rational; they have resolved to construe the events of their own experience, and to accept the sacred conclusion, and that conclusion is that God does not willingly afflict the children of men, that the rod is in a Fathers hand, that no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it worketh out the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Believe me, they are not to be laughed out of that position. They are reasonable men, men of great sagacity, men of affairs, men who can deal with questions of state and empire; and they, coming into the sanctuary–the inmost, sacred sanctuary–are not ashamed to pray. This is the strength of Christian faith. When the Christian is ashamed of his Lord the argument for Christianity is practically, and temporarily, at least, dead. Why do we not speak more distinctly as to the results of our own observation and experience? Great abstract truths admit of being accented by personal testimony. Come and hear, all ye that fear God, said one, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul. If a witness will confine himself to what he himself has known, felt and handled of the Word of Life, then in order to destroy the argument you must first destroy his character. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
In plenty of justice.
The excellence of the Divine justice
Perhaps the foremost characteristic of God that men are tempted to disparage is His justice. They do not relish that which is opposed to their enjoyment, and to the successful issue of their purposes. And as they have a sense of guilt, and cannot fail to see that their conduct brings them into conflict with the Almighty, since He must be offended with the violation of His law, they first wish that He were not the righteous Being that He is, and then they deny Him this essential quality. By so weak a process is it they create a God to their liking.
1. Justice ranks high from its own inherent character. In the old mythology of Greece the Goddess of Justice sat by the side of Jupiter. In all lands the tribunals of justice are next the altars of religion. When men would ask for that which they prize the most among their fellow men, they ask for justice. When the Athenians would most honour Aristides, they called him the just. Justice is the parent of many virtues. The moral sense of every man pronounces the excellence of this noblest virtue. It is excellent in God. It gives a sense of security and repose that our God is a God of justice.
2. Justice is an attribute essential to the complete revelation of God. This quality some men deny in God; if they do not deny it, they degrade it. The first excellence in a judge is that he be just. God administers His government with no respect of persons, and with an undeviating regard to the principles of equity.
3. Justice guards the manifold interests of the Divine empire. Justice to each and all is the result of only the choicest wisdom. No neglect, or partiality, or injustice, can be charged against Him.
4. Justice ministers to the greatest happiness of Gods subjects. This sense of the Divine justice gives solace in the trials of the world.
5. Justice admits the exercise of mercy. Biblical theology allows no rivalry between these two cardinal attributes of God. God has devised an atonement of such a character that, on the one hand, the majesty and sanctity of His law are vindicated, and on the other hand, a full pardon can be granted to sinners who embrace this Divine provision. That which it would not be safe to do in civil society, it is safe to do under this Divine plan for human redemption.
6. Justice demands the punishment of the guilty. Under the economy of grace it demands the punishment of the finally impenitent. It is a strange infatuation that has seized some minds, sensible on every other subject, that there is to be no suitable punishment of sin hereafter. They claim that God is too good to inflict merited penalty; that the doctrine of eternal punishment is a censure upon His fatherhood; that hell has no place under the Divine administration. But sin is here, and suffering is here. Sin causes suffering now, and the penalties of wrong-doing are before our eyes everywhere. The hardest problem is not to account for hell and future punishment, but it is to account for sin and suffering at all. Under the government of a supremely good and powerful God, why is there sin and its necessary woe? We know that sin is. We know that dreadful penalty is. If sin shall go into the future life, if it shall wax great and strong there, if it shall forever lift its defiance against the eternal throne, it will bear–it must bear–its eternal penalty. It is not the eternity of sin, nor the eternity of punishment, which challenges our belief, it is not the duration of them, but the existence of them. Of their existence we know. If, then, endless sinning continues, endless punishment should. God is just. He has issued a just law, harmonious with His own character, as an authoritative guide to men. Inasmuch as they have all broken this law, He has graciously devised, if we may say so, a plan of salvation, by which they can be pardoned and justified, while yet the law is sustained. Now, if they reject this plan, if they will not be saved through Christ, if they prefer to stand on the old basis of the law, it only remains that judgment shall be given by the law. It demands perfect obedience. It imposes death as the penalty of sin. The law, with its announced penalty, God, as a just God, must sustain. The unbeliever in Christ, must, therefore, meet the penalty. There is no recourse. Divine justice demands the punishment of the guilty. It will inflict upon no one more than he deserves. (Burdett Hart, D. D.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 23. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out] This is a very abrupt exclamation, and highly descriptive of the state of mind in which Elihu was at this time; full of solemnity, wonder, and astonishment, at his own contemplation of this “great First Cause, least understood.” The ALMIGHTY! we cannot find him out.
Excellent in power and in judgment] We must not pretend to comprehend his being, the mode of his existence, the wisdom of his counsels, nor the mysteries of his conduct.
He will not afflict.] la yeanneh, he will not ANSWER. He will give account of none of his matters to us. We cannot comprehend his motives, nor the ends he has in view.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We cannot find him out, to wit, to perfection, as it is expressed, Job 11:7. We cannot comprehend him; his being, power, wisdom, justice, and his counsels proceeding from them, are past our finding out; and therefore it is most absurd and intolerable that thou, O Job, presumest to censure what thou dost not understand.
He is excellent in power; and therefore as he doth not need any unrighteous action to advance himself, so he cannot do it, because all such things are acts and evidences of impotency or weakness.
In judgment, i.e. in the just and righteous administration of judgment, as this word is oft used, and as the thing itself and the following words plainly evince. And this he adds, to intimate that although God had indeed a power to crush Job, or any other man, yet he never did nor can exercise that power unjustly or tyrannically, as Job seemed to insinuate.
In plenty of justice; in great and perfect justice, such as no man can justly reproach.
He will not afflict, to wit, without just cause, and above measure; as it may and must be limited, both from the foregoing words, and from Jobs complaint, which was of that very thing; and from the nature of the thing, because otherwise this proposition, that God
will not afflict, is not simply and universally true. Or these last words may be joined with the former; and so some render the place,
he is excellent in power, and, or but, or
yet, he will not afflict any man with judgment and much (i.e. too much)
justice, i.e. with extremity or rigour of justice.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. afflictoppressively, soas to “pervert judgment” as Job implied (see on Job8:3); but see on Job 37:21,end of note. The reading, “He answereth not,” that is,gives no account of His dealings, is like a transcriber’s correction,from Job 33:13, Margin.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[Touching] the Almighty,…. Or with respect to God, who is almighty; with whom nothing is impossible; who can do and does do all things he pleases, and more than we can ask or think; and who is all sufficient, as this word is by some rendered; has enough of every thing in himself and of himself to make him happy; and needs not any of his creatures, nor anything they can do or give him, but has a sufficiency for himself and them;
we cannot find him out; found he may be in his works, and especially in his Son, the express image of his person; in whom he makes himself known as the God of grace: but he is not to be found out to perfection; neither by the light of nature, which is very dim, and by which men grope after him, if haply they may find him; nor even by the light of grace in the present state: and there are many things in God quite out of the reach of man, and ever will be, fully to comprehend; as the modes of the subsistence of the three Persons in the Godhead; the eternity and immensity of God; with all secret things, which belong not to us to inquire curiously into;
[he is] excellent in power; or great and much in it; which is displayed in the works of creation and sustentation of the world; in the redemption and conversion of his people; in the support, protection, and preservation of them; and in the destruction of his and their enemies;
and in judgment; in the government of the world in so righteous a manner; in the judgments he executes on wicked men; and as he will appear to be in the general judgment of the world, at the great day, which will be a righteous one;
and in plenty of justice; being most just, righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works; distributing justice to all, acting according to the rules of it, in all things and towards all persons; so that though he is great in power, he does not abuse that power, to do things that are not just;
he will not afflict; without a just cause and reason for it; nor willingly, but with reluctance; nor never beyond deserts, nor more than he gives strength to bear; and only for the good of his people, and in love to them. Some render it, “he will not answer” b; or give an account of his matters, or the reason of his dealings with men.
b “non respondebit”, Tigurine version; so some in Mercerus and Drusius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(23) Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.He is excellent, or mighty, in power and justice, &c.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. Touching the Almighty he will not afflict The Almighty! We cannot find him out; great ( is he) in power, but right and the fulness of justice he will not pervert. A most worthy ascription to Deity. His infinite power is restricted by his sense of right and justice. “The incomprehensibility and infinite perfection of God silence all objections to his government.” Scott. Thus the great difficulties stated by Job are met and answered. The humblest may cherish trust in God that “he will not afflict willingly,” for chastisement and trial, which arise from the dark and unsearchable depths, really come from the divine heart. In place of He will not afflict, ( he will not pervert, ,) Hirtzel and Rosenmuller read, “He answers not,” when arraigned by the puny mind of man.
We cannot find him out See note on Job 11:7, and “Garbett’s Bampton,” (1867,) lec. 4.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 37:23. He will not afflict He oppresseth not. Heath. He will not be controuled. Houb. The words wise of heart, at the end of the next verse, may be rendered, wise in their own conceit. It is a sarcasm of the same kind with that in the 4th verse of the former chapter. Mr. Peters thinks that our translation, He will not afflict, is right. The expression is absolute, and wants some little explication. The prophet Jeremiah gives it us, and that a very just and beautiful one, by the addition of a word; Lam 3:22. God doth not afflict willingly, or from his heart: he takes no pleasure in the doing of it: it is his work indeed, but a strange work, as Isaiah elegantly terms it, chap. Job 28:21. It seems extremely plain, that Jeremiah borrowed his expression from Job.
And now Elihu, having set forth God’s omnipotence in the strongest colours that he was able, concludes with an observation very applicable to the subject of dispute before them; that God and his ways are incomprehensible by us; that, nevertheless, as he is infinitely powerful and just, we are to conclude that he never sends affliction without cause; and that our duty, therefore, is to fear him, and to submit implicitly to his will; for that all human wisdom is nothing in respect to the wisdom of God. As this speaker performs the part of a moderator, he seems to have observed the errors on both sides, and to have hit upon the point where the controversy ought to rest; namely, the unsearchable depth of the divine wisdom; with a persuasion, that God, who is acknowledged on all hands to be infinitely powerful and just, will certainly find a way to clear up all the irregularities, as they now appear to us, in the methods of his providence, and bring this intricate and perplexed scene at last to a beautiful and regular close. The great fault of the speech seems to be this; that he bears too hard upon Job; and his reproofs, though there were some grounds for them, are nevertheless too harsh and severe. Nay, where he endeavours to repeat what Job had said, he gives it for the most part a wrong turn, or sets it in some very disadvantageous light. The silence of this good man, therefore, during this long speech of Elihu, may be considered as none of the least remarkable instances of his patience; but as he was convinced that one part of the charge brought against him was but too true, (namely, that he had been now and then too hasty and intemperate in his expressions,) he was resolved not to increase the fault by entering anew into the controversy: but by his silence and attention here, and suffering his passions to subside, he was the better prepared to receive the following speech from Jehovah, with that profound humility and that absolute submission which became him.
REFLECTIONS.1st, If, as is by some suggested, at this time the rolling thunders were at a distance heard, with lightnings flashing round, and thickening clouds portending the approaching storm, there will be something more peculiarly beautiful and applicable in this description of Elihu.
1. He professes his own reverential fear at the awful scene, and addresses Job to pay attention to the voice which these mighty thunders uttered. Note; There is something in thunder inexpressibly awful, and it should ever remind us of that glorious God who maketh the thunder.
2. He describes the tremendous appearance. God himself directs the storm, bids the lightnings flash, the thunders roll, and points the mark against which these instruments of destruction are levelled; and in every nation this voice is heard. The flash precedes, and gives the warning of the terrible explosion; and the interval is, according to the distance of the cloud, proportionably longer or shorter, the motion of light being so much swifter than of sound. And he will not slay them when his voice is heard, torrents of rain usually succeeding. Thus doth God speak to the astonished world, marvellous in his works and above our comprehension; how little need we wonder then, if in his providence mysteries appear which we cannot fathom!
2nd, Elihu recounts other instances of the deep and unsearchable wonders which God works. At his word the snow covers the earth; the rain, obedient to his will, descends in gentle dews, or like dreadful cataracts. Driven from the plough, and the road, the traveller seeks the covert, and the labourer retires. Yea, the very beasts fly to their dens, till the tempest be overpast. From the south, or from his chamber, the resistless whirlwind rushes, and bleak northern blasts bring winter’s cold. The straitened waters feel the freezing breath of God, and, bound in crystal fetters, cease to flow. Thick clouds arise, when the dissolving frost emits more copious vapours; and in vast bodies the collected waters float on air till, wearied with watering, exhausted of their stores in wintry showers, they are dissipated before the vernal sun. Then bright clouds appear, not charged with storm or rain, but scattered light over the blue expanse. All things are ordered by his counsels, and come and go at his pleasure; sometimes as instruments of mercy; and sometimes as instruments of judgment, sent for correction, when inclement seasons, black with famine, spread their baneful influence, and inundations rising threaten a returning deluge: Again, they are sent on errands of mercy to the land, when sun and clouds, and rain and snow, conspire to fertilize the soil, and crown the happy spot on which his favour rests, with overflowing vats of wine and oil, or vallies thick with corn. Note; (1.) Since every kind of weather comes from a Divine providence and from unerring wisdom, it is sinful to complain. (2.) Shall beasts be wise to fly for shelter against the storm, and shall not man, a sinner, more provident, seek under the shadow of Jesus a covert from the deluge of divine wrath? (3.) Do all the creatures, thus obedient to the will of God, fulfil his pleasure, and shall we be the only rebels in the creation, and refuse his government and guidance? (4.) If fruitful seasons glad the year, may we never abuse the plenty; but in the gifts behold the giver! If for correction the heavens are made as brass over us; and the earth as iron beneath us refuse to yield its increase, let us hear the rod, and who hath appointed it. Elihu calls upon Job to attend diligently to his speech, and with solemn consideration to weigh well what he had spoken of their wondrous works of God, as an argument for submission to every dispensation; which, however strange to us, is ordered by him whose understanding is infinite. God alone is all-wise, and perfect in knowledge; but as to us, even the wisest, how small a part of his ways can we understand? Dost thou know how God fills the air with his stores of rain, or snow, or vapours? when or where they shall descend? how the rays of light became so beautifully painted on the cloud in the rainbow by the refrangibility of their colours, and by other secondary causes? by what mechanism these floating bodies are suspended, nor rush at once in cataracts to the earth? how our garments are warm, when, after winter’s cold, the milder breath of summer stills the earth? These, with innumerable other things, however obvious in their effects, have mysteries in them which no human wisdom can unfold; and, as none can comprehend these wonders, none can pretend to have shared with God in any of his works. Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, firm, and permanent; and as a molten looking-glass, bright and clear, without a flaw, reflecting the glory of the great Creator. Lost in the immensity and unfathomable abyss of God’s wondrous work, he bids Job speak, if he dared pretend to fathom these mysteries, where the wisdom of man gropes for the wall as blind, and we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. Both darkness of the fallen mind within, and darkness in the mysterious subject without, prevent our conceiving or expressing ourselves with any precision or clearness on the subject. Far, therefore, from wishing that God should be told how well he had spoken, he trembles for himself, conscious how insufficient the best that he could say must appear, where the depth of the matter swallowed up the speaker. Or this last verse declares his disclaiming all attempt to vindicate Job’s cause, where the wisest advocate must be immediately confounded. Note; When we speak of God, his being and perfections, we are all lost in astonishment: if we contemplate his works of creation or providence, our shallow line is quickly run out; if we look into his mysteries of grace, and attempt to speak of them, we find a height and length, and breadth and depth, which passeth created knowledge.
3rdly, Perceiving probably the appearance of the glorious God, enveloped with dark clouds of the sky, and clothed with the whirlwind, Elihu hastens to conclude.
1. He observes, that the sun is darkened with clouds, but the wind disperses them, and from the north cometh fair weather. So, though God approached in terrible majesty, the storm would blow over, and Job’s afflictions issue in the sun-shine of prosperity.
2. He closes his discourse with some short but weighty considerations. God’s glory is infinite: his perfections unsearchable; his power almighty; his judgments righteous; and all his dispensations display infinite justice; so that none has the least reason of complaint. He delights not in man’s sufferings, will never afflict him beyond his deserts, and ever with a design to do him good, where good can be done. Most justly therefore do good men reverence, fear, and submit to him. He respecteth not any that are wise of heart, who, instead of humble submission, indulge their proud reasonings: their censures he disregards, and, instead of altering his procedure, they may expect to be continued under the marks of his displeasure.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The Known and the Unknown
Job 37:23-24
It is well that there should be an immeasurable and unknown quantity in life and in creation. Even the Unknown has its purposes to serve: rightly received, it will heighten veneration; it will reprove unholy ambition; it will teach man somewhat of what he is, of what he can do and can not do, and therefore may save him from the wasteful expenditure of a good deal of energy.
“Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.” All space leads up to the Infinite. There comes a time when men can measure no longer; they throw down their instrument, and say, This is useless: we are but adding cipher to cipher, and we can proceed no further: Space has run up into Infinity, and infinity cannot be measured. Nearly all the words, the greater words, that we use in our thinking and converse, run up into religious greatness. Take the word Time. We reckon time in minutes and hours, in days and weeks and months and years and centuries, and we have gone so far as to speak of millenniums; but we soon tire; arithmetic can only help us to a certain point. Here again we draw up the measuring line or calculating standard, and we say, It is useless, for Time has passed into Eternity. These are facts in philosophy and in science, in nature and in experience, Space rising into Infinity; Time ascending into Eternity: the foot of the ladder is upon earth, but the head of the ladder is lost in infinite distance. Take the word Love. To what uses we put it! We call it by tuneful names. it charms us, it dissipates our solitude, it creates for us companionship, interchange of thought, reciprocation of trust, so that one life helps another, completing it in a thousand ways, great or small. But there comes a point even in love where contemplation can go no further; there it rests yea, there it expires, for Love has passed into Sacrifice; it has gone up by way of the Cross. Always in some minor degree there has been a touch of sacrifice in every form of love, but all these minor ways have culminated in the last tragedy, the final crucifixion, and Love has died for its object. So Space has gone into Infinity, Time into Eternity, Love into Sacrifice. Now take the word Man. Does it terminate in itself is the term Man all we know of being? We have spoken of spirit, angel, archangel; rationally or poetically or by inspiration, we have thought of seraphim and cherubim, mighty winged ones, who burn and sing before the eternal throne, and still we have felt that there was something remaining beyond, and man is ennobled, glorified, until he passes into the completing term God. They, therefore, are superficial and foolish who speak of Space, Time, Love, Man, as if these were self-completing terms: they are but the beginnings of the real thought, little vanishing signs, disappearing when the real thing signified comes into view, falling before it into harmonious and acceptable preparation and homage. So then, Faith may be but the next thing after Reason. It may be difficult to distinguish sometimes as to where Reason stops and Faith begins: but Faith has risen before it, round about it; Faith is indebted to Reason; without reason there could have been no faith. Why not, therefore, put Reason down amongst the terms, and so complete for the present our category, and say, Space, Time, Love, Man, Reason for there comes a point in the ascent of Reason where Reason itself tires, and says, May I have wings now? I can walk no longer, I can run no more; and yet how much there is to be conquered, compassed, seized, and enjoyed! and when Reason so prays, what if Reason be transfigured into Faith, and if we almost see the holy image rising to become more like the Creator, and to dwell more closely and lovingly in his presence? All the great religious terms, then, have what may be called roots upon the earth, the sublime words from which men often fall back in almost ignorant homage amounting to superstition. Begin upon the earth; begin amongst ourselves; take up our words and show their real meaning, and give a hint of their final issue. He who lives so, will have no want of companionship; the mind that finds in all these human, social words, alphabetical signs of great religious quantities and thoughts, will have riches unsearchable, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Why dwarf our words? Why deplete them of their richer and more vital meanings? Why not rather follow them in an ascending course, and rejoice in their expansion, and in their riches? The religious teacher is called upon to operate in this direction, so far as he can influence the minds of his hearers; it is not his to take out of words all their best significations, but rather to charge every human term with some greater thought, to find in every word a seed, in every seed a harvest, it may be of wheat, it may be of ether food, but always meant for the satisfaction and strengthening of our noblest nature.
Our relation, then, to God is strikingly set forth by this speech of Elihu. “We cannot find him out.” It is something to know when the word “cannot” is to be introduced into human speech. That also is a most useful word. It chafes us; we feel that it encages our life: but why need it do so? There is a way of accepting even a “cannot” that shall ennoble our best thinking, that shall chasten all our feeling and passion, and shall excite in us hopes not now to be realised, because the space is too small, and the time too short, and the hour of liberation has not yet come. It is something to know where we have to stop for the moment; time is saved, moral disappointment is avoided, energy is turned upon real practical immediate duty, so that instead of spending life in vain aspiration we spend it in beneficent service, not the less beneficent and large because it is animated by a sure hope and confidence that by-and-by even the horizon shall recede, even heaven shall be heightened, and all we know now of time and space shall be completed in eternity and in infinity. What we do know of God in the first instance, we know as Elihu knew it, through nature, experience, history. We cannot consent that these terms shall be limited by themselves as narrowly interpreted: they shall stand for greater quantities; even such words shall be as little gates opening upon infinite spaces. We may know a good deal by looking at what are called phenomena. Even phenomena are not intended to be self-terminating; they are meant to be suggestive, indicative, significant; rightly accepted, they lure us to further distances, and promise us great results to our religious attention. Take a house, and let me describe it to you with a view of your telling me what the builder or tenant or owner must be. The house is commodious, built of polished stone, enriched here and there and in many places with marble of the finest quality, on which has been expended the most minute and skilful workmanship: the garden is large, filled with choicest plants and flowers, and things of beauty: now and again I hear from the open windows strains of music and gladness and sacred festivity; all the tones are solemn, majestic; now and then indeed I hear sounds of children’s voices, but all blend so as to impress me with a sense of sacredness or solemnity: equipages are coming, going, and great men descend and return; and behold, oftentimes through the gilded gates I see poor people going away with bread, and with signs of beneficent attention. Who lives there? I do not know; I never saw the tenant. Tell me what he must be. Who can hesitate? Though you never saw the tenant of that mansion you know a good deal about him, from what you have seen of what are called phenomena, or appearances, or outside hints. Who, passing the house, would hesitate to say, A rich man lives there; a good man has his home in that house; there you have abundance of wealth, there you have a domestic economy that results in harmony and gladness; there you have a beneficent ruler, one who cares for the poor and the sick and the helpless? Did you ever see him? No. Do you know his name? No. Then how can you predicate such things about him? Because of what we see; all these things, of course, are external, and, therefore, we are not at liberty to attach to them greater significance than belongs to appearances, so-called facts, or events; yet we cannot look upon these facts, events, occurrences, be they what they may, without feeling that no small creature lives there, no man of limited ideas, but a man who would make others as happy as himself, a man of resources, who enriches himself by enriching others. The reasoning would not be unsound; it would rather seem to be supported by facts. The man who took that view of the house might be a rationalist, and yet have no occasion to be ashamed of the designation. Let us “stand still,” as Elihu said in another passage, “and consider the wondrous works of God,” and say from the contemplation of those works, even so far as they are known to us, what God must be, or the works could not be what they are. Verily, the house is large: who can touch the roof, so blue, sun-lighted, star-panelled? Truly the garden is ample, beauteous, fragrant; all the world seems to want to be a garden; the flowers would grow if we would allow them to do so; the music thunder, tempest, storm, strong wind, gentle breeze, purling brook, roaring, dashing cataract a wondrous combination of sounds! And happiness? Verily, there is a great deal of sunshine even amongst men and women and children; yea, merriment and dancing and laughter and gleeful singing. Who made this? I do not know. Who owns it? I cannot tell. What do you think of the architect? I think he must be great, wise, good. Then, say you, if you were to be told that his name is “Father,” would you believe it? At once: you have made a revelation to me; that is the word: I will go round the whole place again, and confirm your accuracy by the facts which are patent to my observation. Then, looking again at the high heaven, at the radiant horizon, at the green earth, at the abundant summer, at the hospitable autumn, I return and say, You have given the right name: whoever he is, “Father” is a word that suits the circumstances! let us keep to that. Then you continue, Were you to be told that you should pray, “Our Father which art in heaven,” would you? Instantly; reason would say so: I could defend myself by facts; I should feel that I was standing upon a pedestal of rock, lifted up so high that I could all but touch the great holy mystery. Thus the Christian thinks he has solid standing-ground; he has not given up reason and handed it over to those who call themselves rationalists; if any man would take away reason from the Church he would stop him and say, That is one of the golden goblets of the sanctuary; it must not be stolen; it is God’s property and must be left in his sanctuary. Who, then, would hesitate, judging by the mere phenomena or circumstances, to describe God as great, wise good?
“He is excellent… in judgment.” Is there any judgment displayed in the distribution of things? Is the globe ill-made? Are all things in chaos? Is there anywhere the sign of a plummet-line, a measuring-tape? Are things apportioned as if by a wise administrator? How do things fit one another? Who has hesitated to say that the economy of nature, so far as we know it, is a wondrous economy? Explain it as men may, we all come to a common conclusion, that there is a marvellous fitness of things, a subtle relation and inter-relation, a harmony quite musical, an adaptation which though it could never have been invented by our reason, instantly secures the sanction of our understanding as being good, fit, and wholly wise.
“And in plenty of justice.” Now Elihu touches the moral chord. It is most noticeable that throughout the whole of the Bible the highest revelations are sustained by the strongest moral appeals. If the Bible dealt only in ecstatic contemplations, in religious musings, in poetical romances, we might rank it with other sacred books, and pay it such tribute as might be due to fine literary inventiveness and expression; but whatever there may be in the Bible supernatural, transcendental, mysterious, there is also judgment, right, justice: everywhere evil is burned with unquenchable fire, and right is commended and honoured as being of the quality of God. The moral discipline of Christianity sustains its highest imaginings. Let there be no divorce between what is spiritual in Christianity and what is ethical, between the revelation sublime and the justice concrete, social, as between man and man; let the student keep within his purview all the parts and elements of this intricate revelation, and then let him say how the one balances the other, and what co-operation and harmony result from the inter-relation of metaphysics, spiritual revelations, high imaginings, and simple duty, personal sacrifice, industry as of stewardship, of trusteeship. This is the view which Elihu takes. God to him was “excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice.”
“He will not afflict.” A curious expression this, and differently rendered. Some render it, He will not answer: or, He will not be called upon to answer for his ways: he will give an account of himself to none; there is a point beyond which he will not permit approach. Yet the words as they stand in the Authorised Version are supported by many collateral passages, and therefore may be taken as literal in this instance. He will not willingly afflict: he is no tyrant; he is not a despot who drinks the wine of blood, and thrives on the miseries of his creation: when he chastens it is that he may purify and ennoble the character, and bring before the vision of man lights and promises which otherwise would escape his attention. Affliction as administered by God is good; sorrow has its refining and enriching uses. The children of God are indeed bowed down, sorely chastened, visited by disappointments; oftentimes they lay their weary heads upon pillows of thorns. Nowhere is that denied in the Bible; everywhere is it patent in our own open history; and yet Christianity has so wrought within us, as to its very spirit and purpose, that we can accept affliction as a veiled angel, and sorrow as one of God’s night-angels, coming to us in cloud and gloom, and yet in the darkest sevenfold midnight of loneliness whispering to us gospel words, and singing to us in tender minor tones as no other voice ever sang to the orphaned heart. Christians can say this; Christians do say this. They say it not the less distinctly because there are men who mock them. They must take one of two courses: they must follow out their own impressions and realisations of spiritual ministry within the heart; or they must, forsooth, listen to men who do not know them, and allow their piety to be sneered away, and their deepest spiritual realisations to be mocked out of them or carried away by some wind of fool’s laughter. They have made up their minds to be more rational; they have resolved to construe the events of their own experience and to accept the sacred conclusion, and that conclusion is that God does not willingly afflict the children of men, that the rod is in a Father’s hand, that no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it worketh out the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Believe me, they are not to be laughed out of that position. They are reasonable men, men of great sagacity, men of affairs, men who can deal with questions of state and empire; and they, coming into the sanctuary the inmost, sacred sanctuary are not ashamed to pray. This is the strength of Christian faith. When the Christian is ashamed of his Lord, the argument for Christianity is practically, and temporarily at least, dead. Why do we not speak more distinctly as to the results of our own observation and experience? Great abstract truths admit of being accented by personal testimony. “Come and hear, all ye that fear God,” said one, “and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.” If a witness will confine himself to what he himself has known, felt and handled of the word of life, then in order to destroy the argument you must first destroy his character.
So, then, we are agnostics “touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.” But we are agnostics only because of our limitation. We are agnostics about all things beyond a given point. Even philosophers say that they are agnostics as regards the inner elements and qualities of matter itself. So let it be. But being agnostics in that sense and under that definition, we are not prevented from following the instinct of life, and inquiring into Scriptural revelation through the medium of its moral discipline; and so inquiring, we have come to the conclusion that God is, and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him; that God is Creator, King, Ruler, Father, Redeemer, and that at the last good will triumph over evil, and the Redeemer shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. Ask us to prove these things in words, and you ask us to do what cannot be done by such feeble instruments; but beyond words, and deeper than words, are holy instinct, spiritual convictions, absolute confidence in the processes and ministries of things which will abide when the mocker is tired of sneering, and when the interrogator is wearied with the monotony of his own questioning. Let us lovingly, steadfastly, through the eternal Son of God, worship and trust him, who has been pleased to make himself known to us by the gracious and tender name of Father.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Job 37:23 [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.
Ver. 23. Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out ] Heb. The Almighty. The nominative case put absolute; q.d. in short, as for the Almighty (that nomen Maiestativum, majestic name, as Tertullian phraseth it), we cannot comprehend him, any more than we can the main ocean in a cockle shell. And whereas we can say, as here, that he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice, Ista de Deo dicimus, quia non invenimus melius quod dicamus (August.); We say these things of God, because we have nothing better to say of him, and must owe the rest unto our thoughts, although, indeed, he is above all name and above all notion. In searching after God, saith Chrysostom, I am like a man digging in a deep spring, I stand here, and the water riseth upon me, and I stand there, and still the water riseth upon me. To Thomas Aquinas, busy in this search, was showed (they say) a deep pit in the edge of the sea (which empty it, and carry away the water as oft as they will), it is still filled with other. It is a knowledge that passeth knowledge, Eph 3:19 . That which in measure is pleasant and profitable, being too much inquired into, proves unsavoury and unsafe.
He will not afflict
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
THE ALMIGHTY. Hebrew Shaddai. App-4.
power. The Hebrew accents mark off three distinct attributes: (1) power supreme; (2) righteousness abundant; (3) the consequent reverence from men, Job 37:24.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
we: Job 37:19, Job 11:7, Job 26:14, Job 36:26, Pro 30:3, Pro 30:4, Ecc 3:11, Luk 10:22, Rom 11:33, 1Ti 6:16
excellent: Job 9:4, Job 9:19, Job 12:13, Job 36:5, Psa 62:11, Psa 65:6, Psa 66:3, Psa 93:1, Psa 99:4, Psa 146:6, Psa 146:7, Isa 45:21, Mat 6:13
in judgment: Psa 36:5-7
he will: Job 16:7-17, Psa 30:5, Lam 3:32, Lam 3:33, Heb 12:10
Reciprocal: Deu 10:17 – a great Job 9:10 – great things Job 33:23 – to Job 34:10 – far Job 35:5 – Look Psa 36:6 – judgments Psa 59:16 – But Ecc 11:5 – even Isa 28:29 – cometh Jer 10:7 – would 2Co 9:1 – touching
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
37:23 [Touching] the Almighty, we cannot find him out: [he is] excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not {u} afflict.
(u) Meaning, without cause.