Job 36:26

King James Version

Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.

Parallel Translations

New Living Translation
"Look, God is greater than we can understand. His years cannot be counted.

English Revised Version
Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.

Update Bible Version
Look, God is great, and we don't know him; The number of his years is unsearchable.

New Century Version
God is so great, greater than we can understand! No one knows how old he is.

New English Translation
"Yes, God is great—beyond our knowledge! The number of his years is unsearchable.

Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, God [is] great, and we know [him] not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.

World English Bible
Behold, God is great, and we don't know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.

Amplified Bible
"Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; The number of His years is unsearchable.

English Standard Version
Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lo! God is greet, ouercomynge oure kunnyng; the noumbre of hise yeeris is with out noumbre.

Berean Standard Bible
Indeed, God is great-beyond our knowledge; the number of His years is unsearchable.

Contemporary English Version
how great God is— God is more than we imagine; no one can count the years he has lived.

American Standard Version
Behold, God is great, and we know him not; The number of his years is unsearchable.

Bible in Basic English
Truly, God is great, greater than all our knowledge; the number of his years may not be searched out.

Complete Jewish Bible
Look, God is great, beyond what we can know; the number of his years is uncountable.

Darby Translation
Lo, God is great, and we comprehend [him] not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.

Easy-to-Read Version
Yes, God is great, but we cannot understand his greatness. We don't know how long he has lived.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, God is great, beyond our knowledge; the number of His years is unsearchable.

King James Version (1611)
Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his yeeres be searched out.

New Life Bible
See, God is honored, and we do not know Him. We are not able to know the number of His years.

New Revised Standard
Surely God is great, and we do not know him; the number of his years is unsearchable.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Beholde, God is excellent, and we knowe him not, neither can the nomber of his yeres bee searched out.

George Lamsa Translation
Behold, God is great, and we know him not, the number of his years is unsearchable.

Good News Translation
We cannot fully know his greatness or count the number of his years.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Lo, GOD, is greater than we can know, The number of his years, even past finding out!

Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold, God is great, exceeding our knowledge: the number of his years is inestimable.

Revised Standard Version
Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Beholde, so great is God that he passeth our knowledge, neither can the number of his yeres be searched out.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Behold, the Mighty One is great, and we shall not know him: the number of his years is even infinite.

Christian Standard Bible®
Yes, God is exalted beyond our knowledge;the number of his years cannot be counted.

Hebrew Names Version
Behold, God is great, and we don't know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.

Lexham English Bible
"Look, God is exalted, and we do not know him; the number of his years is unsearchable.

Literal Translation
Behold, God is great, and we do not know; the number of His years cannot be searched out.

Young's Literal Translation
Lo, God [is] high, And we know not the number of His years, Yea, there [is] no searching.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Beholde, so greate is God, that he passeth oure knowlege, nether are we able to come to ye experiece of his yeares.

THE MESSAGE
"Take a long, hard look. See how great he is—infinite, greater than anything you could ever imagine or figure out!

New American Standard Bible
"Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; The number of His years is unsearchable.

New King James Version
"Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; Nor can the number of His years be discovered.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; The number of His years is unsearchable.

Legacy Standard Bible
Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him;The number of His years is unsearchable.

Contextual Overview

²⁴ Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold. ²⁵ Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off. ²⁶ Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. ²⁷ For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: ²⁸ Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. ²⁹ Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle? ³⁰ Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea. ³¹ For by them judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance. ³² With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt. ³³ The noise thereof sheweth concerning it, the cattle also concerning the vapour.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

God: Job 37:5, Psalms 145:3

we: Job 11:7-9, Job 26:14, Job 37:23, 1 Kings 8:27

neither: Psalms 90:2, Psalms 102:24-27, Hebrews 1:12, 2 Peter 3:8

Reciprocal: Job 28:26 - he made Job 35:5 - Look Psalms 102:27 - years Jeremiah 51:16 - there is Daniel 2:45 - the great

Cross-References

1 Chronicles 1:41
The sons of Anah; Dishon. And the sons of Dishon; Amram, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, God [is] great,.... In his power and might, in his wisdom and knowledge, in his truth and faithfulness, in his love, grace, and mercy, and that to admiration; and it is worthy of notice and attention, which the word "behold", prefixed hereunto, is expressive of: or is "much" or "many" f; as he is in his persons: for though his essence is one, his persons are more, they are three, Father, Son, and Spirit; in his perfections, of which there is a fulness; in his thoughts, counsels, purposes? and decrees, which respect other persons and things; in his works of creation, providence, and grace, and in the blessings of his goodness, which are so many as not to be reckoned up;

and we know [him] not; God is to be known by the works of creation, and even by the very Heathen; though such is their inattention to them, that they are said not to know God; yea, even the wisest among them, by all their wisdom, knew not God, 1 Corinthians 1:21; for though they might know there was a God, they knew not who and what he was. God is known by his word among those who are favoured with a divine revelation of him, and especially by true believers in Christ, who know God in Christ, whom to know is life eternal; and yet these know but in part, there is no finding out the Almighty to perfection; God is not known clearly, fully, and perfectly, by any: or "we know [it] not"; the greatness of God; he is great, but we know not how great he is; his greatness is beyond all conception and expression;

neither can the number of his years be searched out; years are ascribed to God, after the manner of men, otherwise, properly speaking, they are not applicable to him; by which time is measured, and which belongs not to the eternal God; however, the number of his years in an eternity past, and of those to come, cannot be searched out and reckoned up: it requires no great skill in arithmetic to reckon up the years of the oldest man that ever lived; yea, the months, the days, the hours, and minutes, of his life may be counted; but the years of the Most High cannot; this is a phrase expressive of the eternity of him which is, and was, and is to come, and who from everlasting to everlasting is God. He was before the world was, as the creation of it out of nothing shows. Jehovah the Father had a Son, and he loved him before the foundation of the world, and all his people in him; he made an everlasting choice of them in him, before the world began; he made an everlasting covenant with them in him, and gave them grace in him as early as that; he set him up as Mediator from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was; and will be the everlasting and unchangeable portion of his people to all eternity. Cocceius thinks that these words are expressive of the constant love of God to the church, and the continuance of his kingdom in it; and of his most fixed purpose of love to men, and indefatigable care of them.

f שגיא πολυς, Sept. "multus", Mercerus, Drusius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold, God is great, and we know him not - That is, we cannot fully comprehend him; see the notes at Job 11:7-9.

Neither can the number of his years be searched out - That is, he is eternal. The object of what is said here is to impress the mind with a sense of the greatness of God, and with the folly of attempting fully to comprehend the reason of what he does. Man is of a few days, and it is presumption in him to sit in judgment on the doings of one who is from eternity. We may here remark that the doctrine that there is an Eternal Being presiding over the universe, was a doctrine fully held by the speakers in this book - a doctrine far in advance of all that philosophy ever taught, and which was unknown for ages in the lands on which the light of revelation never shone.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 36:26. God is great — He is omnipotent.

We know him not — He is unsearchable.

Neither can the number of his years be searched out. — He is eternal.

These three propositions are an ample foundation for endless disquisition. As to paraphrase and comment, they need none in this place; they are too profound, comprehensive, and sublime.