Matthew Poole and continuators on Job 28:27

27. Then did he see it , and declare it , he prepared it , yea, and searched it out .

Either from eternity, when he decreed what he would do, or when he first created them.

i. e. Wisdom, which is the subject matter of the present discourse. This God saw not abroad, but within himself, he looked or reflected upon it in his own mind, as the rule by which he would proceed in the Creation and Government of all things, managing them in such ways and methods as were most agreeable to his own most wise and unsearchable Counsels, which no humane or created Wit can reach or pierce into. Or, he saw it so as to declare it, as it follows, so as to make it visible and manifest in some measure to his Creatures. Or, he saw it, i. e. he enjoyed it, seeing being oft put for enjoying, as Psal. 27. 13. & 34. 12. Eccles. 3. 13. & 2. 1. Compare Prov. 8. 22.

i. e. He made it evident, he discovered his deep Wisdom which lay hid before in his own breast; or he laid the foundation of that discovery of it, which then was, or afterward should be made to Angels and Men, as the Heavens did in themselves declare the glory of God, Psal. 19. 1. before there was such a Creature as man to take notice of it, because the object was visible in itself, and not made so by the Eye which afterwards beheld it. Or, did number it, i. e. shewed it as it were by number, not only in gross, but as it were by retail, in all the several works which he made.

i. e. He had it in readiness for the doing of all his works, as if he had been for a long time preparing materials for them. So it is a speech of God after the manner of men. Or, he disposed it, i. e. used or employed it in his works. Or, he settled, or established it, i. e. he firmly purposed to do such and such things in such manner as he thought meet, and he established the order which he first made in the World, that it should continue in after ages. Or, he directed it, and directed and ordered all things by it.

Not properly; for so searching implies Ignorance, and that a man is at a loss, and requires time and industry, all which is repugnant to the Divine Perfections; but figuratively, as such expressions are oft used concerning God▪ i▪ e. He did, and doth, all things with that absolute and perfect Wisdom, and he knoweth all his own Counsels and Action[illegible: 1+ letters], and the reasons of them, so exactly, and perfectly, as if he had bestowed a long time in searching, and judging, to find them out. And this, and the other Acts mentioned in this Verse, are to be understood of God solely and exclusively, it being here, as it is oft elsewhere in this Book, sufficiently implied, that this kind of divine Wisdom, which consists in the accurate knowledge of all Gods Counsels and works, is far above, out of man's reach: Man doth not see this Wisdom, but only so far as God is pleased to reveal it to him, and therefore he cannot declare it to others; man did not prepare, nor order, nor contri[illegible: 1+ letters] it, and therefore no wonder if he cannot search it out. And so this is most fitly connected with the following Verse: For as here he tells us what Wisdom is denied to man, so there he informeth us what is granted to him.

Marginal references: Or, number it.