Job 42:3
Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Job 42:3 is Job's confession after God rebuked and questioned him, admitting he had uttered what he did not understand, things too wonderful for him which he knew not. After hearing God, he accepts the reproof implied in his earlier words and recognizes the limits of his knowledge before God. God's wisdom and purposes are too wonderful for finite human understanding.
By asking who hides counsel without knowledge, he admits he obscured God's counsel by such speaking without knowledge about matters beyond his understanding. God brought him to this confession by showing how little he knows and how great God's power is, so that the lesson is to trust God whatever may come. That display of power and wisdom in creation teaches how little can be grasped of God's moral dealings and purposes, especially where eternal life is at stake. After God questioned him, Job recognized that God understood his character and what was right in his case better than he did, and this led him to humble himself and repent in dust and ashes.
The confession is of self-righteousness after defending his own righteousness, exposed when merely hearing about God becomes seeing Him. A real view of God and of the Son of God takes away trust in one's own goodness and righteousness, turns human comeliness into corruption, and brings humbling of self, self-abhorrence, and repentance in dust and ashes. His confession marks a new conversion: humbled after defending his own righteousness, he recognizes that God knows better than he does. That experience warns against claiming perfect holiness too soon and calls for humility, wholehearted consecration, and continuing conversion until Christ's image is fully reflected.
The verse expresses sweet submission to the divine will, to trust God though He cannot be understood. Job had learned from his three friends the littleness of human wisdom and that affliction was not punishment for sin, and from Elihu that affliction was disciplinary, but was not satisfied until God spoke. God's speaking, though not a direct reply to the arguments advanced, was a solution to the problem by showing from all nature His goodness, love, and tender care for all His works, and Job seeing it bows in submission. Applied to God's leading, the verse confesses finding fault with His kind providences while being led by ways not known, uttering what was not understood because His ways are too wonderful to know, and therefore abhorring oneself and repenting in dust and ashes with gratitude to the Redeemer.