Lo, these [are] parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?
Ver. 14. Lo, these are parts of his ways] Or rather, particles of his works. Extrema sunt viarum eius, so the Tigurines translate it; these are the ends, extremities, or utmost parts of them, the το γνωστον, as St Paul calleth it, that which may be known of God, per species creaturarum, Romans 1:19,20, as the sun may be seen in the water after a sort; but in rota, circle, as the schools speak, in the circle wherein it runs, we are not able to behold him; so something of God may be seen in his works, in his word; his back parts we may see and live, as Moses, Exodus 33:18,20; his train in the temple, as Isaiah, Isaiah 6:1
But how little a portion is heard of him?] Heb. What a littleness, or shred of a word or thing, is heard of him, Quam exiguitatem (Pis. cat.). Parvam stillam (Vulg.). ικμαδα (Sept.). Paucum de pauco, pusillum et parum admodum (Merc.). As when one heareth the latter end only of a sentence, that which the echo resoundeth, and no more; it is but a modicum, the main we cannot know, we are as narrow mouthed vessels: Ye are not able to bear what I have to say to you, saith Christ to his apostles, John 16:12. And to the people he spake as they were able to hear, Mark 4:33, and not as he was able to have spoken. Loquimur de Deo non quantum debemus, sed quantum possumus, saith Gratian the emperor, We speak of God, not so much as we should, but so much as we can (In Epist. ad Ambrose). We prophesy but in part, and what wonder, since we know but in part, 1 Corinthians 13:9. In human things the wisest men have professed that the greatest part of what they knew was the least of that they knew not; how much more in things divine? By no expressions do we so fully set forth God, saith Scaliger, as by those which set forth our ignorance. Our safest eloquence concerning God is our silence, saith learned Hooker.
But the thunder of his power, who can understand?] Heb. Of his powers; that is, his powerful thunder; which, while Alladius, king of the Latins, would by certain engines that he had made him imitate, he justly perished by a thunderbolt from heaven; his house also, wherein he had attempted so to do, was consumed with fire from heaven, as Dionysius Halicarnassus and Orosius testify. Some by thunder here understand God's astonishing presence and utterance of himself. Others, his force and grandeur, his notable and thundering exploits, which shine all the world over, and to which, if all that have been instanced shall be compared, they will appear to be but as a few heat drops to a great shower of rain. He that shall go about to declare them shall be forced to say with the poet (Lucret.),
Claudicat ingenium, delirat linguaque, mensque.