Job 37:23 [Touching] the Almighty, we cannot find him out: [he is] excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict.
Ver. 23. Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out] Heb. The Almighty. The nominative case put absolute; q.d. in short, as for the Almighty (that nomen Maiestativum, majestic name, as Tertullian phraseth it), we cannot comprehend him, any more than we can the main ocean in a cockle shell. And whereas we can say, as here, that he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice, Ista de Deo dicimus, quia non invenimus melius quod dicamus (August.); We say these things of God, because we have nothing better to say of him, and must owe the rest unto our thoughts, although, indeed, he is above all name and above all notion. In searching after God, saith Chrysostom, I am like a man digging in a deep spring, I stand here, and the water riseth upon me, and I stand there, and still the water riseth upon me. To Thomas Aquinas, busy in this search, was showed (they say) a deep pit in the edge of the sea (which empty it, and carry away the water as oft as they will), it is still filled with other. It is a knowledge that passeth knowledge, Ephesians 3:19. That which in measure is pleasant and profitable, being too much inquired into, proves unsavoury and unsafe.
He will not afflict] viz. Willingly, Lamentations 3:33, or causelessly, 1 Peter 1:6; or, He will not answer; viz. every one that questioneth the justice of his proceedings, as Job, in his heat, had done. The Seventy render the question, Will he not answer? sc. those that call upon him in truth, since he is excellent in power and in judgment? &c. Sure he will.