Job 21:5
in Job 21Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Mark me, and be astonished, And lay your hand upon your mouth.
KJV
Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
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This verse in Job 21
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Mark me - Margin, “look unto.” Literally, “Look upon me. That is, attentively look on me, on my sufferings, on my disease, and my losses. See if I am a proper object of repreach and mockery - see if I have not abundant reason to be in deep distress when God has afflicted me in a manner so unusual and mysterious. And be astonished - Silent astonishment should be evinced instead of censure.
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.
This site's exposition
put your hand over your mouth
Barnes hears Job calling the friends to look at his sufferings and ask whether he deserves their mockery. A hand over the mouth is the sign of silence, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain from Proverbs 30:32. Wesley holds that what follows should appall them.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Ver. 5. Mark me, and be astonished. 43. i.e. Consider what I have done, and be astonished at the things that I undergo under this infliction of the rod. And he yet further rightly introduces the words; And lay your finger upon your mouth. As if he had said in plain speech; 'Knowing the good things that I have done and seeing the ills that I am subjected to, your own selves keep even from offence in words, and in my strokes dread your own hurts.'
Since this disputation is about a great matter, one should listen attentively, and so he says, "Pay attention to me." It should also not be listened to lightly or with scorn, but more with dignity and with amazement, and so he says, "Be astonished." It …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
"It is true," says Job, "remarkable judgments are sometimes brought upon notorious sinners, but not always; for we have many instances of the great and long prosperity of those that are openly and avowedly wicked; though they are hardened in their wickedness by their prosperity, yet they are still suffered to prosper." I.
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.
Mark - Consider what I am about to say concerning the prosperity of the worst of men, and the pressures of some good men, and it is able to fill you with astonishment.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Mark me,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
lay . . . hand upon . . . mouth-- (Pr 30:32; So the heathen god of silence was pictured with his hand on his mouth. There was enough in Job's case to awe them into silence (Job 17:8).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
Mark me, and be astonished - Consider and compare the state in which I was once, with that in which I am now; and be astonished at the judgments and dispensations of God. You will then be confounded; you will put your hands upon your mouths, and keep silent. Putting the hand on the mouth, or the finger on the lips, was the token of silence. The Egyptian god Harpocrates, who was the god of silence, is represented with his finger compressing his upper lip.
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| פְּנוּ־ | penu- | turn | H6437 → | 135 times |
| אֵלַ֥י | ʾelai | to me | H413 → | 5510 times |
| וְהָשַׁ֑מּוּ | vehashamu | and be appalled | H8074 → | 86 times |
| וְשִׂ֖ימוּ | vesimu | and put | H7760 → | 584 times |
| יָ֣ד | yad | a hand | H3027 → | 1618 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | over | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| פֶּֽה׃ | peh | a mouth | H6310 → | 498 times |
פְּנוּ־turn
penu-H6437 →135 times
אֵלַ֥יto me
ʾelaiH413 →5510 times
וְהָשַׁ֑מּוּand be appalled
vehashamuH8074 →86 times
וְשִׂ֖ימוּand put
vesimuH7760 →584 times
יָ֣דa hand
yadH3027 →1618 times
עַל־over
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
פֶּֽה׃a mouth
pehH6310 →498 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
Job 40:4“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.
it leads to
- Proverbs 30:32
If you have foolishly exalted yourself or if you have plotted evil, put your hand over your mouth.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Job 29:9
The princes refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 42:6
Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.”
- Ezra 9:6
and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.
- Genesis 18:27
Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord—though I am but dust and ashes—
- Proverbs 30:32
Through
Job 29:9The princes refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.
it leads to
- Job 40:4
“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 40:4
Through
Psalms 39:9I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done.
it leads to
- Job 2:10
“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
- Job 2:10
Through
Judges 18:19“Be quiet,” they told him. “Put your hand over your mouth and come with us and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest for…
it leads to
- Judges 17:10
“Stay with me,” Micah said to him, “and be my father and priest, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your provisions.” So the Levite…
- Judges 17:10
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, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; 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 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.