Job 21:4
in Job 21Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As for me, is my complaint to man? And why should I not be impatient?
KJV
As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?
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This verse in Job 21
Commentary
11 notes on this verseAs for me - האנכי heanochi, “Alas for me!” Is it not with a man that I speak? And, if this be the case, why should not my spirit be troubled? I do not reply against my Maker: I suffer much from God and man; why then may I not have the privilege of complaining to creatures like myself?
This site's exposition
Is my complaint against a man
on Job 21:4-6
Job asks, "Is my complaint against a man", and since his complaint is with God, he asks "why should I not be impatient". Barnes reads "When I remember, terror takes hold" as Job admitting that the case troubles him as much as it will trouble them.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"And what!" he says, "is it a mortal who blames me?" that is, no mortal can blame me. I am not fighting against a man.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Ver. 4. As for me, is my dispute against man, that I should not be justly sad? 42. Whosoever in pleasing God displeases man, has no grounds for sadness. But he, who in pleasing man displeases God, or thinks that he displeases both God and man together, if sadness does not come upon him, proves a stranger to the excellency of wisdom.
Lest his words will be necessarily condemned, he shows that he is about to speak the great matters of divine judgment and not human judgments. Thus he says, "Is my debate against a man so that I should not be sad with merit?", as if …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 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.
(5.) There was that in his case which was very surprising and astonishing, and therefore both needed and deserved their most serious consideration. It was not a common case, but a very extraordinary one. [1.] He himself was amazed at it, at the troubles God had laid upon him and the censures of his friends concerning him (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Is - I do not make my complaint to, or expect relief from you, or from any men, hut from God only: I am pouring forth my complaints to God. If - If my complaint were to man, have I not cause?
As for me, is my complaint to man?....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Job's difficulty was not as to man, but as to God, why He so afflicted him, as if he were the guilty hypocrite which the friends alleged him to be. Vulgate translates it, "my disputation." if it were--rather, "since this is the case."
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
As for me, is my complaint to man? - There is some difficulty in the interpretation of this verse, and considerable variety of explanation may be seen among expositors. The “object” of the verse is plain. It is to state a reason why they should hear him with patience and without interruption. The meaning of this part of the verse probably is, that his principal difficulty was not with his friends, but with God. It was not so much what they had said, that gave him trouble, as it was what God had done. Severe and cutting as were their rebukes, yet it was far more trying to him to be treated as he had been by God, “as if” he were a great sinner. That was what he could not understand. Perplexed and troubled, therefore, by the mysteriousness of the divine dealings, his friends ought to be willing to listen patiently to what he had to say; and in his anxiety to find out “why” God had treated him so, they ought not at once to infer that he was a wicked man, and to overwhelm him with increased anguish of spirit. It will be recollected that Job repeatedly expressed the wish to be permitted to carry his cause at once up to God, and to have his adjudication on it. See Job 13:3, note; Job 13:18, notes. It is that to which he refers when he says here, that he wished to have the cause before God, and not before man. It was a matter which he wished to refer to the Almighty, and he ought to be allowed to express his sentiments with entire freedom. One of the difficulties in understanding this verse arises from the word “complaint.” We use it in the sense of “murmuring,” or “repining;” but this, I think, is not its meaning here. […]
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֶ֭אָנֹכִי | heanokhi | ¿ I | H595 → | 359 times |
| לְאָדָ֣ם | leadam | to humankind | H120 → | 551 times |
| שִׂיחִ֑י | sichi | [is] complaint my | H7879 → | 13 times |
| וְאִם־ | veim- | and if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| מַ֝דּ֗וּעַ | madua' | why? | H4069 → | 72 times |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תִקְצַ֥ר | tiktzar | will it be short | H7114 → | 49 times |
| רוּחִֽי׃ | ruchi | spirit my | H7307 → | 378 times |
הֶ֭אָנֹכִי¿ I
heanokhiH595 →359 times
לְאָדָ֣םto humankind
leadamH120 →551 times
שִׂיחִ֑י[is] complaint my
sichiH7879 →13 times
וְאִם־and if
veim-H518 →1069 times
מַ֝דּ֗וּעַwhy?
madua'H4069 →72 times
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
תִקְצַ֥רwill it be short
tiktzarH7114 →49 times
רוּחִֽי׃spirit my
ruchiH7307 →378 times
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
Psalms 42:11Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.
it leads to
- Psalms 42:5
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him for the salvation of His presence.
- Jeremiah 30:17
But I will restore your health and heal your wounds, declares the LORD, because they call you an outcast, Zion, for whom no one cares.”
- Jeremiah 33:6
Nevertheless, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal its people and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.
- Psalms 43:5
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.
- Matthew 9:12
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
- Psalms 42:5
Through
Psalms 102:1Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry for help come before You.
it leads to
- Psalms 18:6
In my distress I called upon the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for His help reached His ears.
- Psalms 130:1–2
Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!
- Exodus 2:23
After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.
- Psalms 18:6
About Job
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; 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; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 21:3-6; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.