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?
• 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?
• New Living Translation (NLT)“My complaint is with God, not with people. I have good reason to be so impatient.

Context of Job 21:4

2“Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you give me. 3Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on. “Is my complaint directed to a human being? Why should I not be impatient? 5Look at me and be appalled; clap your hand over your mouth. 6When I think about this, I am terrified; trembling seizes my body.

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 keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
• Job 10:1“I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
• 1 Samuel 1:16Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
• Psalms 22:1My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
• Psalms 77:3I remembered you, God, and I groaned; I meditated, and my spirit grew faint.
• Psalms 102:1Hear my prayer, Lord; let my cry for help come to you.
• Psalms 142:2I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble.
• Matthew 26:38Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
• 2 Kings 6:26As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
• Psalms 42:11Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
• Exodus 6:9Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh 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