Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, June 14th, 2025
the Week of Proper 5 / Ordinary 10
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Read the Bible

New Century Version

Job 11:9

His limits are longer 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 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.
Bible in Basic English
Longer in measure than the earth, and wider 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 "Can you understand the secrets of God? Can you search the limits of the Almighty? 8 His limits are higher than the heavens; you cannot reach them! They are deeper than the grave; you cannot understand them! 9 His limits are longer than the earth and wider than the sea. 10 "If God comes along and puts you in prison or calls you into court, no one can stop him. 11 God knows who is evil, and when he sees evil, he takes note of it. 12 A fool cannot become wise any more than a wild donkey can be born tame.

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
Those who lived in the lands around the Mediterranean Sea came from these sons of Japheth. All the families grew and became different nations, each nation with its own land and its own language.
Genesis 10:10
At first Nimrod's kingdom covered Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh in the land of Babylonia.
Genesis 10:20
All these people were the sons of Ham, and all these families had their own languages, their own lands, and their own nations.
Genesis 10:25
Eber was the father of two sons—one named Peleg, because the earth was divided during his life, and the other was named Joktan.
Genesis 11:1
At this time the whole world spoke one language, and everyone used the same words.
Genesis 11:14
When Shelah was 30 years old, his son Eber was born.
Genesis 11:31
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran's son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Abram's wife) and moved out of Ur of Babylonia. They had planned to go to the land of Canaan, but when they reached the city of Haran, they settled there.
Genesis 11:32
Terah lived to be 205 years old, and then he died in Haran.
Acts 17:26
God began by making one person, and from him came all the different people who live everywhere in the world. God decided exactly when and where they must live.
1 Corinthians 14:23
Suppose the whole church meets together and everyone speaks in different languages. If some people come in who do not understand or do not believe, they will say you are crazy.

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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