Job 21:2
in Job 21“Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Hear diligently my speech; And let this be your consolations.
KJV
Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations.
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This verse in Job 21
Commentary
9 notes on this verseLet this be your consolations - ותהי זאת תנחומתיכם uthehi zoth tanchumotheychem may be translated, “And let this be your retractations.” Let what I am about to say induce you to retract what you have said, and to recall your false judgments. נחם nacham signifies, not only to comfort, but to change one’s mind, to repent; hence the Vulgate translates et agite paenitentiam, “and repent,” which Coverdale follows in his version, and amende yourselves. Some suppose the verse to be understood ironically: I am now about to give you consolations for those you have given me.
This site's exposition
Then Job answered
on Job 21:1-3
Job asks for one thing the friends have not given him, a hearing, and says "let this be your consolation to me". Gill notes that the request is modest, the courtesy their silence at 2:13 once offered and their reproaches in chapter 19 have since withdrawn.
This site's exposition
Listen carefully to my words
Barnes explains the Hebrew as hearing hear, a call to listen carefully to Job's words. The friends had offered comfort with empty words, and Job asks that their listening be his consolation. Clarke notes the word can also mean to repent.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
In the preceding chapter Sophar had already consented to the opinion of Job, at least in part. He had affirmed that sins were punished after death, although he still retained in this his own opinion that sins were also punished temporally in this life. For …
Ver. 2. Hear I pray you my speech, and practise penitence. 40. For he that when he said Hear, added, I pray you, shews how humbly he speaks, whilst he entreats persons, swelling with pride against him, to bring back their thought to the teaching of saving truth. But whereas holy men, within the pale of the Universal Church, are not only ready to teach what is right, but also to undergo things that are done against them, they do not dread being laughed at.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
He owns that God does sometimes hang up a wicked man as it were in chains, in terrorem --as a terror to others, by some visible remarkable judgment in this life, but denies that he always does so; nay, he maintains that commonly he does otherwise, suffering even the worst of sinners to live all their days in prosperity and to go out of the world without any visible mark of his wrath upon them.
"After I have spoken you may go on with what you have to say, and I will not hinder you, no, though you go on to mock me." Those that engage in controversy must reckon upon having hard words given them, and resolve to bear reproach patiently; for, generally, those that mock will mock on, whatever is said to them.
Hear diligently my speech,....
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Hear diligently - Hebrew “Hearing hear” - that is, hear attentively. What he was about to say was worthy of their solemn consideration. And let this be your consolations - That is, “You came to me for the professed purpose of giving “me” consolation. In that you have wholly failed. You have done nothing to sustain or comfort me; but all that you have said has only tended to exasperate me, and to increase my sorrow. If you will now hear me attentively, I will take that as a consolation, and it shall be in the place of what I had a right to expect from you. It will be “some” comfort if I am permitted to express my sentiments without interruption, and I will accept it as a proof of kindness on your part.”
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שִׁמְע֣וּ | shimu | listen | H8085 → | 1159 times |
| שָׁ֭מוֹעַ | shamoa' | completely [to] <to listen> | H8085 → | 1159 times |
| מִלָּתִ֑י | milati | speech my | H4405 → | 38 times |
| וּתְהִי־ | utehi- | and let it be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| זֹ֝֗את | zot | this | H2063 → | 603 times |
| תַּנְח֥וּמֹֽתֵיכֶֽם׃ | tanchumoteikhem | consolations your | H8575 → |
שִׁמְע֣וּlisten
shimuH8085 →1159 times
שָׁ֭מוֹעַcompletely [to] <to listen>
shamoa'H8085 →1159 times
מִלָּתִ֑יspeech my
milatiH4405 →38 times
וּתְהִי־and let it be
utehi-H1961 →3559 times
זֹ֝֗אתthis
zotH2063 →603 times
תַּנְח֥וּמֹֽתֵיכֶֽם׃consolations your
tanchumoteikhemH8575 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Hebrews 2:1We must pay closer attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
it leads to
- Luke 8:15
But the seeds on good soil are those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, cling to it, and by persevering produce a crop.
- 2 Peter 1:12–13
Therefore I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have.
- Proverbs 7:1–2
My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you.
- Proverbs 2:1–6
My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,
- Deuteronomy 4:9
Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as…
- Luke 8:15
Through
Job 16:2“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.
it leads to
- Job 13:4–5
You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.
- Job 13:4–5
Through
Job 15:11Are the consolations of God not enough for you, even words spoken gently to you?
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 1:3–5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
- Job 13:2
What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.
- 2 Corinthians 1:3–5
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XV; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.