“I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.”
My Notes
What Does Job 42:2 Mean?
"I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee." Job's final response to God is total acknowledgment: You can do everything and no purpose of Yours can be stopped. The man who questioned God's justice now confesses God's unrestricted power. The complaints haven't been answered — they've been transcended. Job doesn't get explanations. He gets encounter.
The phrase "thou canst do every thing" (kol tuchal — you are able to do all) is comprehensive capability: not some things, not most things, but every thing. The limitation Job assumed — that God couldn't or wouldn't act justly — dissolves before God's self-revelation. The problem wasn't God's inability. It was Job's inability to see what God was doing.
The "no thought can be withholden" (lo yibatzer mimmeka mezimmah — no plan/purpose can be cut off from you) means God's purposes are unstoppable: no force can prevent God's intentions from being realized. The plans God has cannot be blocked, diverted, or frustrated. What God intends happens.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Have you arrived at 'I know You can do everything' — and what brought you there?
- 2.What does Job's confession coming from encounter (not answers) teach about how faith resolves doubt?
- 3.How does 'no thought can be withholden' reframe suffering as part of an unstoppable purpose?
- 4.What would it mean to surrender your questions — not because they were answered, but because you saw God?
Devotional
I know. You can do everything. No purpose of Yours can be stopped. Job's final words are not theological argument. They're personal confession. The man who spent 37 chapters questioning, accusing, defending, and demanding now simply says: You can do it all. Nothing stops You.
The shift from chapters of complaint to these words of surrender isn't the result of answered questions — God never explained why Job suffered. The shift is the result of encounter. Job saw God (verse 5 — 'now mine eye seeth thee'). And seeing God did what hearing about God couldn't: it ended the argument. Not because the questions were answered. Because the Questioner was seen.
The 'no thought can be withholden' — no purpose can be stopped — reframes everything: Job's suffering wasn't evidence that God's purposes were broken. It was part of a purpose Job couldn't see. The plan wasn't diverted by Job's pain. The pain was within the plan. What looked like absence of purpose was actually purpose operating beyond Job's vision.
Job 42:2 is the response that every sufferer eventually reaches — or doesn't. You either arrive at 'You can do everything and nothing stops You' or you stay in the complaint. The arrival isn't earned by getting answers. It's earned by seeing God. The encounter produces the confession that the argument never could.
Have you arrived at 'I know You can do everything' — and did the arrival come from answered questions or from seeing God?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?.... It may be understood, and supplied, as it is by Cocceius, "thou…
I know that thou canst do everything - This is said by Job in view of what had been declared by the Almighty in the…
I know that thou canst do every thing - Thy power is unlimited; thy wisdom infinite.
The words of Job justifying himself were ended, Job 31:40. After that he said no more to that purport. The words of Job…
do every thing Or, canst do all.
no thought can be withholden That is, no purpose. The meaning is that there is no…
Cross References
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