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 closely to what I am saying. That’s one consolation you can give me. 3Bear with me, and let me speak. After I have spoken, you may resume mocking me. “My complaint is with God, not with people. I have good reason to be so impatient. 5Look at me and be stunned. Put your hand over your mouth in shock. 6When I think about what I am saying, I shudder. My body trembles.

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“I cannot keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. My bitter soul must complain.
• Job 10:1“I am disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely. My bitter soul must complain.
• 1 Samuel 1:16Don’t think I am a wicked woman! For I have been praying out of great anguish and sorrow.”
• Psalms 22:1My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
• Psalms 77:3I think of God, and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help. Interlude
• Psalms 102:1Lord, hear my prayer! Listen to my plea!
• Psalms 142:2I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.
• Matthew 26:38He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
• 2 Kings 6:26One day as the king of Israel was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him, “Please help me, my lord the king!”
• Psalms 42:11Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!
• Exodus 6:9So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.

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