O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Many able expositors render this, 'of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.' (So Erasmus, Grotius, Bengel, Fritzsche, Tholuck, Olshausen, Alford, Philippi, Lange.) The words will certainly bear this sense; and then we have three distinct things drawing forth the apostle's admiration: first, 'the depth of God's riches'-a term which, when the apostle uses it alone (Romans 10:12; Ephesians 3:8; Philippians 4:19), seems to mean the riches of His grace (which accordingly DeWette renders if here [Gnadenreichthums] - contrary to his usual strict literality); next, the depth of His "wisdom;" and lastly, the depth of His "knowledge." But (with Luther, Calvin, Beza, and Hodge) we prefer our own version; partly because "the riches of God" is a much rarer expression with our apostle than the riches of this or that perfection of God; but still more because the words immediately following limit our attention to the unsearchableness of God's "judgments," by which are probably meant His decrees or plans (Psalms 119:75), and of "his ways," or the method by which He carries these into effect. And all that follows to the end of the chapter seems to show that while the Grace of God to guilty men in Christ Jesus is presupposed to be the whole theme of this chapter, that which called forth the special admiration of the apostle, after sketching at some length the divine purposes and methods in the bestowment of this Grace, was 'the depth of the riches of God's wisdom and knowledge' in these purposes and methods. The "knowledge," then, points probably to the vast sweep of divine comprehension herein displayed; the "wisdom" to that fitness to accomplish the ends intended which is stamped on all this procedure.