Job 5:9

5:9 He does great and unsearchable things,

marvelous things without number;

Job 9:10

9:10 he does great and unsearchable things,

and wonderful things without number.


tn Heb “who does.” It is common for such doxologies to begin with participles; they follow the pattern of the psalms in this style. Because of the length of the sentence in Hebrew and the conventions of English style, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

tn The Hebrew has וְאֵין חֵקֶר (vÿen kheqer), literally, “and no investigation.” The use of the conjunction on the expression follows a form of the circumstantial clause construction, and so the entire expression describes the great works as “unsearchable.”

tn The preposition in עַד־אֵין (’aden, “until there was no”) is stereotypical; it conveys the sense of having no number (see Job 9:10; Ps 40:13).

sn H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 54) notes that the verse fits Eliphaz’s approach very well, for he has good understanding of the truth, but has difficulty in making the correct conclusions from it.

tn Only slight differences exist between this verse and 5:9 which employs the simple ו (vav) conjunction before אֵין (’eyn) in the first colon and omits the ו (vav) conjunction before נִפְלָאוֹת (niflaot, “wonderful things”) in the second colon.

sn There is probably great irony in Job’s using this same verse as in 5:9. But Job’s meaning here is different than Eliphaz.