The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings [is] unsearchable.
Ver. 3. The heaven for height, &c.] It is a wonder that we can look up to so admirable a height, and that the very eye is not tired in the way. If this ascending line could be drawn right forwards, some that have calculated curiously, have found it five hundred years' journey to the starry sky. Other mathematicians say, that if a stone should fall from the eighth sphere, and should pass every hour a hundred miles, it would be sixty-five years or more before it would come to the ground. I suppose there is as little credit to be given to these as to Aratus the astrologer, who boasted that he had found out and set down the whole number of the stars in heaven; or as to Archimedes the mathematician, that said, that he could by his art cast up the just number of all the sands both in the habitable and inhabitable parts of the world. a
And the earth for depth.] From the surface to the centre, how far it is, cannot be known exactly, as neither whether hell be there: but that it is somewhere below may be gathered from Revelation 14:11, and other places. Ubi sit sentient, qui curiosius quaerunt.
And the heart of kings is unsearchable.] Profundum sine fundo. God gave Solomon "a large heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore." 1Ki 4:29 A vast capacity, an extraordinary judgment, and wisdom to reserve himself. No bad cause was too hard for him to detect; no practices which he did not smell out; no complotter which he did not speedily entrap in their wiles, as Adonijah.
a Sphinx Philosoph.