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Read the Bible

Bible in Basic English

Job 11:9

Longer in measure than the earth, and wider than the sea.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - God Continued...;   The Topic Concordance - Knowledge;   Opposition;   Seeing;   Vanity;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Earth, the;   Sea, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Zophar;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Providence of God;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Measure;   Holman Bible Dictionary - God;   Job, the Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Job, Book of;   Know;   Measure;   Unchangeable;   Zophar;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for April 2;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Their measure is longer than the earthand wider than the sea.
Hebrew Names Version
The measure of it is longer than the eretz, And broader than the sea.
King James Version
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
English Standard Version
Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.
New Century Version
His limits are longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
New English Translation
Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
Amplified Bible
"It is longer in measure [and scope] than the earth, And broader than the sea.
New American Standard Bible
"Its measurement is longer than the earth And broader than the sea.
World English Bible
The measure of it is longer than the earth, And broader than the sea.
Geneva Bible (1587)
The measure thereof is longer then the earth, and it is broader then the sea.
Legacy Standard Bible
Its measure is longer than the earthAnd broader than the sea.
Berean Standard Bible
Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
Contemporary English Version
and these mysteries outreach the earth and the ocean?
Complete Jewish Bible
Their extent is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.
Darby Translation
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
Easy-to-Read Version
It is greater than the earth and bigger than the seas.
George Lamsa Translation
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
Good News Translation
God's greatness is broader than the earth, wider than the sea.
Lexham English Bible
Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.
Literal Translation
Its measure is longer than the earth, broader than the sea.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
His length exceadeth the length of the earth, and his bredth ye bredth of the see.
American Standard Version
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, And broader than the sea.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
King James Version (1611)
The measure therof is longer then the earth, and broader then the sea.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The measure of it is longer then the earth, and broder then the sea.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Or longer than the measure of the earth, or the breadth of the sea.
English Revised Version
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
His mesure is lengere than erthe, and brodere than the see.
Update Bible Version
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, And broader than the sea.
Webster's Bible Translation
The measure of it [is] longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
New King James Version
Their measure is longer than the earth And broader than the sea.
New Living Translation
It is broader than the earth and wider than the sea.
New Life Bible
They are longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
New Revised Standard
Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Longer than the earth, is the measure thereof, and broader than the sea.
Douay-Rheims Bible
The measure of him is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
Revised Standard Version
Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
Young's Literal Translation
Longer than earth [is] its measure, And broader than the sea.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Its measure is longer than the earth And broader than the sea.

Contextual Overview

7 Are you able to take God's measure, to make discovery of the limits of the Ruler of all? 8 They are higher than heaven; what is there for you to do? deeper than the underworld, and outside your knowledge; 9 Longer in measure than the earth, and wider than the sea. 10 If he goes on his way, shutting a man up and putting him to death, who may make him go back from his purpose? 11 For in his eyes men are as nothing; he sees evil and takes note of it. 12 And so a hollow-minded man will get wisdom, when a young ass of the field gets teaching.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

longer: Job 28:24, Job 28:25, Psalms 65:5-8, Psalms 139:9, Psalms 139:10

Reciprocal: Job 38:5 - laid

Cross-References

Genesis 10:5
From these came the nations of the sea-lands, with their different families and languages.
Genesis 10:10
And at the first, his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
Genesis 10:20
All these, with their different families, languages, lands, and nations, are the offspring of Ham.
Genesis 10:25
And Eber had two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, because in his time the peoples of the earth became separate; and his brother's name was Joktan.
Genesis 11:1
And all the earth had one language and one tongue.
Genesis 11:14
And Shelah was thirty years old when he became the father of Eber:
Genesis 11:31
And Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Abram and they went out from Ur of the Chaldees, to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran, and were there for some time.
Genesis 11:32
And all the years of Terah's life were two hundred and five: and Terah came to his end in Haran.
Acts 17:26
And he has made of one blood all the nations of men living on all the face of the earth, ordering their times and the limits of their lands,
1 Corinthians 14:23
If, then, the church has come together, and all are using tongues, and there come in men without knowledge or faith, will they not say that you are unbalanced?

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The measure thereof [is] longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. Length is generally ascribed to the earth, and width to the sea; the ends of the earth are used for a great distance, and the sea is called the great and wide sea; see k Psalms 72:1; but God and his perfections, particularly his wisdom and understanding, are infinite, Psalms 147:5; and will admit of no dimensions; as his love, so his wisdom, has an height which cannot be reached, a depth that cannot be fathomed, and a length and breadth immeasurable; see Ephesians 3:18; from hence it appears that God is omniscient, omnipresent, and incomprehensible; and since he is to be found in Christ, and in him only, it is in vain for us to seek for him elsewhere: next the sovereignty of God is discoursed of.

k "Quid oceano longius inveriri potest", Cicero. Orat. 36.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The measure thereof is longer than the earth - The measure of the knowledge of God. The extent of the earth would be one of the longest measures known to the ancients. Yet it is now impossible to ascertain what ideas were attached, in the time of Job, to the extent of the earth - and it is not necessary to know this in order to understand this expression. It is morally certain that the prevailing ideas were very limited, and that a small part of the earth was then known. The general belief seems to have been, that it was a vast plain, surrounded by water - but how supported, and what were its limits, were evidently matters to them unknown. The earliest knowledge which we have of geography, as understood by the Arabs, represents the earth as wholly encompassed by an ocean, like a zone. This was usually characterized as a “Sea of Darkness;” an appellation usually given to the Atlantic; while to the Northern Sea was given the name of “The Sea of Pitchy Darkness.” Edrisi imagined the land to be floating in the sea, and only part appearing above, like an egg in a basin of water. If these views prevailed so late as the tenth and eleventh centuries of the Christian era, it is reasonable to conclude that the views of the figure and size of the earth must have been extremely limited in the time of Job. On the ancient views of geography, see the notes at Job 26:7-10, and the maps there, also Murray’s Encyclopaedia of Geography, Book I, and Eschenberg’s Manual of Classical Literature, by Prof. Fiske, Part I.

And broader than the sea - What was the idea of the breadth of the sea, which was supposed to surround the earth, it is now wholly impossible to determine. Probably there were no ideas on the subject that could be regarded as settled and definite. The ancients had no means of ascertaining this, and they perhaps supposed that the ocean extended to an unlimited extent - or, perhaps, to the far distant place where the sky and the water appeared to meet. At all events it was an illustration then, as it is now, of a vast distance, and is not inappropriately used here to denote the impossibility of fully understanding God. This illustration would be far more striking then than now. We have crossed the ocean; and we do not deem it an impracticable thing to explore the remotest seas. But not so the ancients. They kept close to the shore. They seldom ventured out of sight of land. The enterprise of exploring and crossing the vast ocean, which they supposed encompassed the globe, was regarded by them as wholly impracticable - and equally so they correctly supposed it was to find out God.


 
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