(7) В¶ Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? (8) It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? (9) The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. (10) If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him? (11) For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it? (12) For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt.
Zophar in those verses draws a most beautiful, and striking contrast, between the glory and greatness of GOD, and the vanity and littleness of man. He points to several of the distinguishing attributes of JEHOVAH, such as his sovereignty, eternity, incomprehensibleness. He then takes the dullest, and silliest of all domesticated animals, by way of showing the poverty and emptiness of man, and in that of an ass and a wild ass, and even worse than both, a wild ass's colt, which of course must be more egregiously stupid than its dam, sets forth the folly of the man that pretends to wisdom.