What Does Job 9:10 Mean in the King James?
Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse sets two limits, no complete search and no final count, because wonder exceeds both understanding and measurement.
THE MEANING
The verse places your knowing before a reality that exceeds its reach. God’s works remain real even when you cannot trace their full shape or make a complete count. Wonder here is the recognition that the field is larger than the mind’s map.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what you cannot explain or measure must be absent or meaningless.
THE ROOT
נִפְלָאוֹת
nifla'ot
GROWS FROM
פלא
To be extraordinary or marvelous, beyond the ordinary reach.
Nifla’ot grows from פלא, the root of what is extraordinary or beyond ordinary reach. English “wonders” can sound like a class of impressive events; the Hebrew keeps the sense that they exceed the usual frame of perception.
ALSO GROWS
pele: Wonder, marvel.
פֶּלֶא
This noun shares the seed פלא, tying the verse’s wonders to what exceeds the ordinary.
nifla: Wonderful, extraordinary.
נִפְלָא
This form carries the same root as a quality: what is wonderful exceeds the expected.
חֵקֶר
ḥēqer
GROWS FROM
חקר
To search, investigate, or examine.
“finding out” in this verse is ḥēqer. The Hebrew phrase is עַד־אֵין חֵקֶר, “to no searching” or “without end to inquiry.” The limit is on the search reaching completion, not on the searcher’s effort; the verse pairs wonder with the boundary of comprehension.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāqar: To search, investigate, or examine.
חָקַר
The verb names the effort that cannot reach a final account of these works.
ḥēqer: Search, inquiry, investigation.
חֵקֶר
This noun appears in the verse’s phrase for what is beyond finding out.
מִסְפָּר
mispar
GROWS FROM
ספר
To count or recount; to give an account.
“number” in this verse is mispar. Mispar belongs to the root family ספר, which includes counting and recounting. A count tries to gather things into a complete total; here, the works exceed that closure.
ALSO GROWS
sāphar: To count, reckon, or recount.
סָפַר
This verb exposes the counting action hidden in the word “number.”
sēfer: Book, document, or record.
סֵפֶר
The same root can name a written record, another way of gathering things into an account.
THE PATTERN
God’s works and wisdom exceed both the human search that tries to comprehend them and the count that tries to contain them.
Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.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!THE THREAD
Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.Job’s “number” and Psalm 40’s “reckoned up” and “declare” draw on the Hebrew root ספר (s-p-r), the language of counting and recounting. What can be tallied can also be told, yet the telling still cannot total the wonders.
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