Job 21:34
in Job 21So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How then comfort ye me in vain, Seeing in your answers there remaineth only falsehood?
KJV
How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?
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This verse in Job 21
Commentary
10 notes on this verse"There is nothing left of your answers but emptiness," that is, you, he says, have brought me suffering and torments instead of consolation; and what I gain from speaking a great deal is only emptiness. Your answers, he says, are vanity to me.
This site's exposition
He is carried to the grave
on Job 21:32-34
Job closes with a wicked man honored in death. He turns on their counsel, and "your answers remain full of falsehood" is the sharpest word he has used. Watson notes that in chapter 22 Eliphaz stops refining the doctrine and names specific sins Job is nowhere shown to have committed.
This site's exposition
how can you comfort me with empty words
Henry explains why the comfort is empty: the friends promised Job prosperity if he turned to God, assuming that piety always brings prosperity. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that falsehood literally means transgression. Their answers remain false.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
So Job has explained his idea in a gradual order, first showing in Chapter Nineteen (v. 25) that the hope of the just tends to reward of the future life. Here he expresses the opinion that punishment is reserved for evil men after death, and …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
How - Why then do you seek to comfort me with vain hopes of recovering my prosperity, seeing your grounds are false, and experience shews, that good men are often in great tribulation, while the vilest of men prosper.
All you have said gives me no relief; you tell me that I shall prosper again if I turn to God, but you go upon this presumption, that piety shall certainly be crowned with prosperity, which is false; and therefore how can your inference from it yield me any comfort?" Note, Where there is not truth there is little comfort to be expected.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
How then comfort ye me in vain,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
How then comfort ye me in vain - Mr. Good translates: “How vainly then would ye make me retract!” See the note on Job 21:2. I cannot retract any thing I have said, as I have proved by fact and testimony that your positions are false and unfounded. Your pretensions to comfort me are as hollow as the arguments you bring in support of your exceptionable doctrines. This chapter may be called Job’s triumph over the insinuated calumnies, and specious but false doctrines, of his opponents.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
falsehood--literally, "transgression." Your boasted "consolations" (Job 15:11) are contradicted by facts ("vain"); they therefore only betray your evil intent ("wickedness") against me. -- JFB18B.HTM --
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
How then comfort ye me in vain ... - That is, how can you be qualified to give me consolation in my trials, who have such erroneous views of the government and dealings of God? True consolation could be founded only on correct views of the divine government; but such views, Job says, they had not. With their conceptions of the divine administration, they could not administer to him any real consolation. We may learn hence, (1) That all real consolation in trial must be based on correct apprehensions of the divine character and plans. Falsehood, delusion, error, can give no permanent comfort. (2) They whose office it is to administer consolation to the afflicted, should seek after the “truth” about God and his government. They should endeavor to learn why he afflicts people, what purpose he proposes to accomplish, and what are the proper ends of trial. They should have an unwavering conviction that he is right, and should see as far as possible “why” he is right, before they attempt to comfort others. Their own souls should be imbued with the fullest conviction that all the ways of God are holy, and then they should go and endeavor to pour their convictions into other hearts, and make them feel so too. A minister of the gospel, who has unsettled, erroneous, or false views of the character and government of God, is poorly qualified for his station, and will be a “miserable comforter” to those who are in trial. Truth alone sustains the soul in affliction. Truth only can inspire confidence in God. Truth only can break the force of sorrow, and enable the sufferer to look up to God and to heaven with confidence and joy. (The end of Part One of the Commentary on Job)
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְ֭אֵיךְ | veeikh | and how? | H349 → | |
| תְּנַחֲמ֣וּנִי | tenachamuni | will you comfort me | H5162 → | 108 times |
| הָ֑בֶל | havel | vanity | H1892 → | 73 times |
| וּ֝תְשֽׁוּבֹתֵיכֶ֗ם | uteshuvoteikhem | and answers your | H8666 → | |
| נִשְׁאַר־ | nishar- | it remains | H7604 → | |
| מָֽעַל׃ ס | maal | unfaithfulness | H4604 → |
וְ֭אֵיךְand how?
veeikhH349 →
תְּנַחֲמ֣וּנִיwill you comfort me
tenachamuniH5162 →108 times
הָ֑בֶלvanity
havelH1892 →73 times
וּ֝תְשֽׁוּבֹתֵיכֶ֗םand answers your
uteshuvoteikhemH8666 →
נִשְׁאַר־it remains
nishar-H7604 →
מָֽעַל׃ סunfaithfulness
maalH4604 →
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
Job 42:7After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as…
it leads to
- Job 32:2–3
This kindled the anger of Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram. He burned with anger against Job for justifying himself rather than God,
- Job 11:5–6
But if only God would speak and open His lips against you,
- Job 32:5
But when he saw that the three men had no further reply, his anger was kindled.
- Job 4:1
Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
- Psalms 51:4
Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.
- Job 32:2–3
Through
Job 13:4You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.
it leads to
- Psalms 119:69
Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep Your precepts with all my heart.
- Jeremiah 8:22
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?
- Psalms 119:69
Through
Job 32:3and he burned with anger against Job’s three friends because they had failed to refute Job, and yet had condemned him.
it leads to
- Job 8:6
if you are pure and upright, even now He will rouse Himself on your behalf and restore your righteous estate.
- Job 8:6
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ishodad of Merv, COMMENTARY ON JOB 21:34; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; R. A. Watson, The Book of Job, Expositor's Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.