That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
(That which is) crooked cannot be made straight - `be brought into position' (Hengstengberg). The imperfection in the arrangements of the world result from the fall. All attempts to rectify this imperfection without recognition of the fall of man are vain. The dislocated state of all creaturely things, subject as they are to vanity, is designed to bring us, in despair of bettering them, to take refuge in God.
And that which is wanting (Daniel 5:27 ) cannot be numbered - so as to take a complete number: so equivalent to cannot be supplied (Maurer). Or rather, man's state is utterly wanting; and that which is wholly defective cannot be numbered or calculated. 'Where nothing is, nothing can be counted; human life consists entirely of nulls' (Hengstenberg).