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Job 36 · a question people ask

"God is great, and we don't know him" (36:26). Is Elihu saying God can't be known?

In the text

Elihu's line is about God's greatness: "Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable" (36:26). He says something like it twice in the next chapter: "He does great things, which we can’t comprehend" (37:5), and "We can’t reach the Almighty" (37:23). In the same speech he also calls God a teacher (36:22) who "opens their ears to instruction" (36:10). Other Scripture uses 36:26's word for unsearchable: "His greatness is unsearchable" (Psalm 145:3), and "His understanding is unsearchable" (Isaiah 40:28). Deuteronomy says, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever" (Deuteronomy 29:29). Paul writes, "How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!" (Romans 11:33). These are Elihu's words, and these notes don't make them the book's teaching; they set them beside the other verses and say only what each says.

The verses

“Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.”
Job 36:26 · World English Bible
“God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things, which we can’t comprehend.”
Job 37:5 · World English Bible
“We can’t reach the Almighty. He is exalted in power. In justice and great righteousness, he will not oppress.”
Job 37:23 · World English Bible
“Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?”
Job 36:22 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 36

Job 36: Who is a teacher like him?

The vapor Elihu says rain distills from (36:27) is a Hebrew word found only here and in the "mist" of Genesis 2:6, when "the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth" (Genesis 2:5). And the "lightning" God covers his hands with (36:32) is, in Hebrew, the word for light, the light of 36:30.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions