Job 21:4

Job 21:4 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?
• New International Version (NIV)“Is my complaint directed to a human being? Why should I not be impatient?
• English Standard Version (ESV)As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?
• New King James Version (NKJV)“As for me, is my complaint against man? And if it were, why should I not be impatient?

Context of Job 21:4

2“Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you offer me. 3Bear with me and I will speak, and after I have spoken you may mock. Is my complaint against a man? If so, why should I not be impatient? 5Look at me and be appalled; put your hands over your mouths. 6For, when I think about this, I am terrified and my body feels a shudder.

Job 21:4 word by word

הֶ֭אָנֹכִי לְאָדָ֣ם שִׂיחִ֑י וְאִם־מַ֝דּ֗וּעַ לֹא־תִקְצַ֥ר רוּחִֽי׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• my complaintשִׂיחַώîyach · complaintH7879
• to manאָדָם'âdâm · manH120
• why should not my spiritרוּחַrûach · spirit: temperH7307
• be troubledקָצֵרqâtsar · be shortH7114

Cross-references for Job 21:4

• Job 7:11“Therefore, I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
• Job 10:1“I am weary of my life; I will complain without restraint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
• 1 Samuel 1:16Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman, for until now I have spoken from my deep pain and anguish.”
• Psalms 22:1My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I groan in prayer, but help seems far away.
• Psalms 77:3I said, “I will remember God while I groan; I will think about him while my strength leaves me.” (Selah)
• Psalms 102:1O Lord, hear my prayer! Pay attention to my cry for help!
• Psalms 142:2I pour out my lament before him; I tell him about my troubles.
• Matthew 26:38Then he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.”
• 2 Kings 6:26While the king of Israel was passing by on the city wall, a woman shouted to him, “Help us, my master, O king!”
• Psalms 42:11Why are you depressed, O my soul? Why are you upset? Wait for God! For I will again give thanks to my God for his saving intervention.
• Exodus 6:9Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and hard labor.

Commentaries on Job 21:4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 4As 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?Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 4As 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…Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 44. 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."Read the comment

In the dictionaries

• Patience
• Psychology
• horror, horrible, object of horror

Commentaries on Job 21

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings