Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
Ver. 18. Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth?] Heb. the breadths, i.e. the length also and circumference thereof. Geographers define the length of the earth from east to west, the breadth from north to south; and they have their suppurations and conjectures, Frigidae sunt et leves coniecturae (Mercer). Peucer and others tell us, that if there were a path made round the earth, an able footman might easily go it in 900 days. Which if he could, yet what mortal man, though he should live 900 years, could ever visit and view the whole face, nature, and dimension of the earth, wherein are so many deserts and bogs impassable? Or, what Job can give a reason why God made the earth of such a length and breadth, and no more, when he could so easily have done it? How much less can he of God's secret and unsearchable judgments? and why should he so desire to know the cause wherefore he is afflicted?
Declare if thou knowest it all] Since a great part of it is uninhabited; and the sea surroundeth it as a girdle.