New English Translation
Job 21:5
5Look at me and be appalled; put your hands over your mouths.
Job 21:5 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
- New International Version (NIV)Look at me and be appalled; clap your hand over your mouth.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Look at me and be astonished; Put your hand over your mouth.
Context of Job 21:5
3Bear with me and I will speak, and after I have spoken you may mock. 4Is my complaint against a man? If so, why should I not be impatient? Look 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. 7“Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, even increase in power?
Read all of Job 21Job 21:5 word by word
פְּנוּ־אֵלַ֥י וְהָשַׁ֑מּוּ וְשִׂ֖ימוּ יָ֣ד עַל־פֶּֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 21:5
- Job 2:12But when they gazed intently from a distance but did not recognize him, they began to weep loudly. Each of them tore his robes, and they threw dust into the air over their heads.
- Job 17:8Upright men are appalled at this; the innocent man is troubled with the godless.
- Job 19:20My bones stick to my skin and my flesh; I have escaped alive with only the skin of my teeth.
- Job 29:9the chief men refrained from talking and covered their mouths with their hands;
- Job 40:4“Indeed, I am completely unworthy – how could I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth to silence myself.
- Judges 18:19They said to him, “Shut up! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us! You can be our adviser and priest. Wouldn’t it be better to be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for just one man’s family?”
- Psalms 39:9I am silent and cannot open my mouth because of what you have done.
- Proverbs 30:32If you have done foolishly by exalting yourself or if you have planned evil, put your hand over your mouth!
- Amos 5:13For this reason whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time, for it is an evil time.
- Micah 7:16Nations will see this and be disappointed by all their strength, they will put their hands over their mouths, and act as if they were deaf.
- Romans 11:33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!
Commentaries on Job 21:5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 5Mark 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.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 5Mark 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. You should wonder that a man whose life has been a life of piety…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 55. lay ... hand upon ... mouth--(Pr 30:32; Jud 18:19). 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).Read the comment
In the dictionaries
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
New English Translation — © 1996-2016 Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C.
Commentaries