But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
Ver. 27. Will God indeed dwell on the earth?] Mirabundus ita exclamat, saith Vatablus, who further observeth here, that the Hebrew words are preposterously put together, as importing an ecstasy of admiration.
Behold, the heaven.] The visible heaven.
And heaven of heavens.] The third heaven, the place of the blessed. Gen 14:19 Psa 115:16
Cannot contain thee.] Such is thine immensity: thou fillest all places, and art comprehended of no place. God is a circle, said Empedocles, whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere. Orpheus, Aratus, and Aeschylus say the same in effect. God is higher than the heaven, saith a father, deeper than hell, broader than the earth, more diffuse than the sea. He is nowhere, and yet everywhere, quia nec abest illi, nec ullo capitur loco. a Neither yet must we conceive that God is commensurable by the place; for he is everywhere all-present. The heavens have a large place, but they have one part here and another there; but the Lord is totally present, wheresoever present. Oh, wonderful!
a Bernard.