Ecclesiastes 11:5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything.(A)
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John 3:8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
8 The wind[a] blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”(A)
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- 3.8 The same Greek word means both wind and spirit
Psalm 92:5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 How great are your works, O Lord!
Your thoughts are very deep!(A)
Ecclesiastes 8:17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
17 then I saw all the work of God, that no one can find out what is happening under the sun. However much they may toil in seeking, they will not find it out; even though those who are wise claim to know, they cannot find it out.(A)
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Romans 11:33
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
33 O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!(A)
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Isaiah 40:28
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.(A)
Psalm 139:13-16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.(A)
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.(B)
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.(C)
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.[a]
Footnotes
- 139.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain
Psalm 104:24
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
24 O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.(A)
Ecclesiastes 7:24
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
24 That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?(A)
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Job 36:24-33
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty
24 “Remember to extol his work,
of which mortals have sung.(A)
25 All people have looked on it;
everyone watches it from far away.
26 Surely God is great, and we do not know him;
the number of his years is unsearchable.(B)
27 For he draws up the drops of water;
he distills[a] his mist in rain,(C)
28 which the skies pour down
and drop upon mortals abundantly.
29 Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,
the thunderings of his pavilion?(D)
30 See, he scatters his lightning around him
and covers the roots of the sea.
31 For by these he governs peoples;
he gives food in abundance.(E)
32 He covers his hands with the lightning
and commands it to strike the mark.(F)
33 Its crashing[b] tells about him;
he is jealous[c] with anger against iniquity.(G)
Job 26:5-14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 The shades below tremble,
the waters and their inhabitants.
6 Sheol is naked before God,
and Abaddon has no covering.(A)
7 He stretches out Zaphon[a] over the void
and hangs the earth upon nothing.(B)
8 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
and the cloud is not torn open by them.(C)
9 He covers the face of the full moon
and spreads over it his cloud.(D)
10 He has described a circle on the face of the waters,
at the boundary between light and darkness.(E)
11 The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astounded at his rebuke.
12 By his power he stilled the Sea;
by his understanding he struck down Rahab.(F)
13 By his wind the heavens were made fair;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.(G)
14 These are indeed but the outskirts of his ways,
and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?”(H)
Footnotes
- 26.7 Or the North
Psalm 40:5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
they would be more than can be counted.(A)
Job 38:4-39:30
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.(A)
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone(B)
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings[a] shouted for joy?(C)
8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,(D)
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,(E)
10 and prescribed bounds for it,
and set bars and doors,(F)
11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?(G)
12 “Have you commanded the morning since your days began
and caused the dawn to know its place,(H)
13 so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?(I)
14 It is changed like clay under the seal,
and it is dyed[b] like a garment.
15 Light is withheld from the wicked,
and their uplifted arm is broken.(J)
16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?(K)
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?(L)
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.(M)
19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,
20 that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?(N)
21 Surely you know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!(O)
22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,(P)
23 which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
for the day of battle and war?(Q)
24 What is the way to the place where the light is distributed
or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?(R)
25 “Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain
and a way for the thunderbolt,(S)
26 to bring rain on a land where no one lives,
on the desert, which is empty of human life,(T)
27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground put forth grass?(U)
28 “Has the rain a father,
or who has fathered the drops of dew?(V)
29 From whose womb did the ice come forth,
and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?(W)
30 The waters become hard like stone,
and the face of the deep is frozen.
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades
or loose the cords of Orion?(X)
32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
or can you guide the Bear with its children?
33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you establish their rule on the earth?(Y)
34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
so that a flood of waters may cover you?(Z)
35 Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go
and say to you, ‘Here we are’?(AA)
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts[c]
or given understanding to the mind?[d](AB)
37 Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens
38 when the dust runs into a mass
and the clods cling together?
39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lion
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,(AC)
40 when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in their covert?(AD)
41 Who provides for the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God
and wander about for lack of food?(AE)
39 “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you observe the calving of the deer?(AF)
2 Can you number the months that they fulfill,
and do you know the time when they give birth,
3 when they crouch to give birth to their offspring
and are delivered of their young?(AG)
4 Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open;
they go forth and do not return to them.
5 “Who has let the wild ass go free?
Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,(AH)
6 to which I have given the steppe for its home,
the salt land for its dwelling place?(AI)
7 It scorns the tumult of the city;
it does not hear the shouts of the driver.
8 It ranges the mountains as its pasture,
and it searches after every green thing.
9 “Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
Will it spend the night at your crib?(AJ)
10 Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes,
or will it harrow the valleys after you?
11 Will you depend on it because its strength is great,
and will you hand over your labor to it?
12 Do you have faith in it that it will return
and bring your grain to your threshing floor?[e]
13 “The ostrich’s wings flap wildly,
though its pinions lack plumage.[f]
14 For it leaves its eggs to the earth
and lets them be warmed on the ground,
15 forgetting that a foot may crush them
and that a wild animal may trample them.
16 It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own;
though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear;(AK)
17 because God has made it forget wisdom
and given it no share in understanding.(AL)
18 When it spreads its plumes aloft,[g]
it laughs at the horse and its rider.
19 “Do you give the horse its might?
Do you clothe its neck with mane?(AM)
20 Do you make it leap like the locust?
Its majestic snorting is terrible.(AN)
21 It paws[h] violently, exults mightily;
it goes out to meet the weapons.(AO)
22 It laughs at fear and is not dismayed;
it does not turn back from the sword.
23 Upon it rattle the quiver,
the flashing spear, and the javelin.
24 With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground;
it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.(AP)
25 When the trumpet sounds, it says ‘Aha!’
From a distance it smells the battle,
the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.(AQ)
26 “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars
and spreads its wings toward the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
and makes its nest on high?(AR)
28 It lives on the rock and makes its home
in the fastness of the rocky crag.
29 From there it spies the prey;
its eyes see it from far away.(AS)
30 Its young ones suck up blood,
and where the slain are, there it is.”(AT)
Job 37:23
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
23 The Almighty[a]—we cannot find him;
he is great in power and justice,
and abundant righteousness he will not violate.(A)
Footnotes
- 37.23 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
Job 5:9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
9 He does great things and unsearchable,
marvelous things without number.(A)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.