Matthew Poole and continuators on Proverbs 30:4

4 Who hath ascended up into heaven , or descended ? who hath gathered the wind in his fists ? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth ? what is his name, and what is his sons name, if thou canst tell ?

What meer man? None at all; and therefore I may truly say that I have not that which no Mortal Man ever yet had.

There to learn the mind of God who dwells there, and that Wisdom which is from above.

Or rather, and descended, to teach men below what he had learned above. The meaning of the Place is, No man can fully know and teach us these things unless he hath been in Heaven, and sent down from thence to the Earth to that end. Whence our Saviour Christ justly applies these words to himself, Ioh. 3. 13. and appropriates this work of declaring God's nature and will to men to himself upon this account, that he alone was in his Fathers bosom, Ioh. 1. 18.

To hold them in, or let them out, and rule them at his pleasure? Where is there a Man that can do this? And none but he who made and governs all the Creatures, can know and teach these things.

Those above in the Clouds; and those below, the Sea which God keeps as it were within Doors, and in a Garment, and Swadling-band, as it is expressed, Iob 38. 8, 9. and the Waters which he shuts up in the Bowels of the Earth.

The whole Earth from one end to another, which God upholdeth in the Air by the Word of his Power, and secureth from the rage of the Sea, by the Banks and Shores wherewith he hath begirt it for that purpose.

The sense is, Either 1. Seeing it is apparent that no Man hath this Power, and consequently this Knowledge, but that this is the Prerogative of the Great God, declare, if thou art able, his Name, i. e. his Nature and Perfections, and the eternal Generation, and the Perfections of his Son. Or rather 2. if thou thinkest there be any such Man who can do these things, I challenge thee to produce his Name, or, if he be long since dead and gone out of the World, the Name of any of his Posterity that can assure us that their Progenitor was such a Person. Which because thou canst not do, I must conclude that none can thoroughly understand this matter, but the blessed God and his Son Christ, and they to whom God shall reveal them by Christ.

Marginal references: Joh. 3. 13.; Heb. and descended.; Job 38. 4, &c. Ps. 104. 3. &c. Isa. 40. 12, &c.