Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:
Ver. 9. Which doth great things and unsearchable] The better to persuade Job to take his counsel, he entereth into a large description of God's attributes, his power, wisdom, justice, mercy, &c., all which are clearly seen in his works of wonder as in a mirror, or as on a theatre. These he is ever in doing, as the word here signifieth; and showeth himself great in great things, and not little in the least, dum nemora culicis et pulicis disponit (Aug.), yea, he useth to be greater in smaller things than in bigger. The soul is more operative in ants than in elephants; in dwarfs than in giants. So he delights to help his people with a little help, Daniel 11:34 (that through weaker means they may see his greatest strength), to magnify his power in pardoning their many and mighty sins, Num 14:17-18 Micah 7:18; to illustrate his power in their perseverance and wonderful preservation amidst a world of evils and enemies, John 10:29 1 Peter 1:5; to fulfil his promises, seem they never so improbable or impossible, Jeremiah 32:14,15; to answer prayers that look as if lost, and to do for his people exceeding abundantly above all that they can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in them, Ephesians 3:20. All this Eliphaz would have Job to consider, that he might not cast away his confidence, but seek to God, and turn his talk to him, as Beza turneth the foregoing words.
And unsearchable] Heb. And no search, for they are fathomless, and past finding out, Romans 11:33. This Eliphaz might say, to stop Job's curiosity; and to humble him for his sin, in inquiring too much into the reason of God's so severe dealing with him, Job 3:1,26; in prying too far, or too boldly, into the secret workings of God. It should suffice us to know that the will of God is the rule of right, that his judgments are sometimes secret, always just; that it is extreme folly to reprehend what we cannot comprehend (we may as soon comprehend the sea in a cockleshell as the unsearchable things of God in our narrow and shallow understandings); that at the last day all things shall be cleared up, and every mouth stopped, when exquisite reasons of all God's proceedings (which now seem not so well carried) shall be produced, and wisdom shall be justified of her children.
Marvellous things] Such as the wisest may well wonder at. God is the only Thaumaturgus, the great wonder worker; and these marvels are more ordinary than the most are, either at all either aware of, or affected with. To let pass those wonders of the creation (for which, see Psa 136:4-7), Canst thou tell how the bones grow in her that is with child, saith Solomon? Ecclesiastes 11:5. Mirificatus sum mirabilibus operis tuis, so Montanus rendereth that of David, Psalms 139:14, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works," &c. Galen, that great naturalist, was much amazed at the motion of the lungs in man's body, and would needs offer sacrifices therefore to that God whom he knew not (Fernel. de abd. Rer. Caus.). Who can give a natural reason of the strength of the lower limbs, of the heat in the stomach, of the colours in the rainbow, of the ebbing and flowing of the sea, or but of this ordinary occurrence, that chaff is so cold, that it keeps snow hidden within it from melting, and in addition, so warm, that it hasteneth the ripening of apples? Well might Eliphaz say, that God doth marvellous things without number.