Job 11:8
 Job 11:8 
New International Version (©2011)
They are higher than the heavens above--what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below--what can you know?

New Living Translation (©2007)
Such knowledge is higher than the heavens--and who are you? It is deeper than the underworld--what do you know?

English Standard Version (©2001)
It is higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know?

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
They are higher than the heavens--what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol--what can you know?

International Standard Version (©2012)
These things are higher than the heavens, so what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol, so what can you know?

NET Bible (©2006)
It is higher than the heavens--what can you do? It is deeper than Sheol--what can you know?

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
[God's wisdom is] higher than heaven. What can you do? It is deeper than [the depths] of hell. What can you know?

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
It is as high as heaven; what can you do? deeper than Sheol; what can you know?

American King James Version
It is as high as heaven; what can you do? deeper than hell; what can you know?

American Standard Version
It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know?

Douay-Rheims Bible
He is higher than heaven, and what wilt thou do ? he is deeper than hell, and how wilt thou know?

Darby Bible Translation
It is as the heights of heaven; what wilt thou do? deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know?

English Revised Version
It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know?

Webster's Bible Translation
It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?

World English Bible
They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?

Young's Literal Translation
Heights of the heavens! -- what dost thou? Deeper than Sheol! -- what knowest thou?

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:7-12 Zophar speaks well concerning God and his greatness and glory, concerning man and his vanity and folly. See here what man is; and let him be humbled. God sees this concerning vain man, that he would be wise, would be thought so, though he is born like a wild ass's colt, so unteachable and untameable. Man is a vain creature; empty, so the word is. Yet he is a proud creature, and self-conceited. He would be wise, would be thought so, though he will not submit to the laws of wisdom. He would be wise, he reaches after forbidden wisdom, and, like his first parents, aiming to be wise above what is written, loses the tree of life for the tree of knowledge. Is such a creature as this fit to contend with God?


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? literally, heights of the heavens; what canst thou do? But the meaning is probably that expressed in the Authorized Version. God's perfectness is unattainable by man's thought, as the heights of the heavens are by his feet. Deeper than hell; literally, than Sheol, or the receptacle of the dead (see the comment on Job 10:21). St. Paul speaks of the "deep things," or rather, "the depths" (τὰ βάθη) of God (see 1 Corinthians 2:10). What canst thou know? How small a part of the Divine nature can any man thoroughly comprehend and know!


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do?.... Or, "is higher than the heavens" (i); either the wisdom of God and the secrets of it; the perfection of his wisdom, by which he has made the heavens; or evangelical wisdom, hid in his heart, and which the highest of creatures, the angels, come at the knowledge of only by revelation; and therefore, what can man do to find it out, unless God reveals it? or wisdom displayed in dark providences, which can never be accounted for until the judgments of God are made manifest: or else, "he that is God", as the Vulgate Latin version, is "higher than the heavens"; the heaven is his throne on which he sits, and therefore he must be higher than that; the heavens, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain him; he fills up the infinite space beyond them; how is it possible therefore to find him out, to comprehend him?

deeper than hell; what canst thou know? meaning, neither the grave nor the place of the damned, for both which "Sheol" is sometimes used, but the centre or lowest part of the earth; there is a depth in God, in his essence, in his thoughts, in his wisdom, displayed in nature, providence, and grace, that is unfathomable; we can know nothing of it but what he is pleased to make known; see Psalm 92:5; the Targum of the verse is,"in the height of heaven, what canst thou do? in the law, which is deeper than hell, what canst thou know?''

(i) "altior est altissimis coelis", Junius & Tremellius.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. It—the "wisdom" of God (Job 11:6). The abruptness of the Hebrew is forcible: "The heights of heaven! What canst thou do" (as to attaining to them with thy gaze, Ps 139:8)?

know—namely, of His perfections.


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Zophar Rebukes Job
7Can you by searching find out God? can you find out the Almighty to perfection? 8It is as high as heaven; what can you do? deeper than hell; what can you know? 9The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. …

Ephesians 3:18 may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
Job 7:9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return.
Job 11:9 Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
Job 22:12 "Is not God in the heights of heaven? And see how lofty are the highest stars!
Job 26:6 The realm of the dead is naked before God; Destruction lies uncovered.
Job 35:5 Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you.
Job 37:23 The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.
Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
Psalm 36:6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, LORD, preserve both people and animals.