Job 21 34

Job 21:34 kjv

How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?

Job 21:34 nkjv

How then can you comfort me with empty words, Since falsehood remains in your answers?"

Job 21:34 niv

"So how can you console me with your nonsense? Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!"

Job 21:34 esv

How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood."

Job 21:34 nlt

"How can your empty clich?s comfort me?
All your explanations are lies!"

Job 21 verses

Job 21 34 Meaning

Job 21:34 conveys Job’s exasperation and rejection of his friends’ attempts to comfort him. He challenges their ineffective and fallacious counsel, highlighting its emptiness and inherent falsehood. Despite their intentions to console, Job perceives their words as utterly void of truth, revealing a fundamental misunderstanding of his suffering and God's ways.

Job 21 34 Context

Job 21:34 is Job’s concluding retort in his third cycle of speeches, specifically responding to Zophar’s earlier argument (Job 20). Zophar had emphatically reiterated the traditional belief that the wicked invariably suffer calamity and their prosperity is fleeting. However, throughout chapter 21, Job presents empirical evidence contradicting this simplistic retribution theology, asserting that the wicked often prosper and live long, dying in peace and leaving wealthy heirs. Job 21:34 therefore serves as a scathing summary of Job's utter dismissal of his friends’ rigid, flawed theology. It highlights their inability to offer true comfort or understanding, as their arguments are rooted in a doctrine that fails to account for the complexities of suffering and the reality of life as Job observes it. It's a statement of profound theological and personal alienation from his comforters.

Job 21 34 Word analysis

• How then: Expresses Job's strong frustration and bewilderment. It introduces a rhetorical question that assumes a negative answer. Job is highlighting the logical conclusion derived from their futile attempts at consolation.
• can you: Refers directly to his three friends – Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar – emphasizing their collective failure.
• comfort me: The verb for "comfort" (נחם, nāḥam) signifies offering consolation, solace, or sympathy. Job points out the hypocrisy; their stated aim of comfort directly conflicts with the harm their words cause.
• with empty nothings: The Hebrew term is הֶבֶל (hevel), famously used in Ecclesiastes. Its core meaning is "breath," signifying ephemerality, vanity, futility, emptiness, or meaninglessness. It suggests their counsel is insubstantial, transient, and without truth or value. It has no weight or foundation. This highlights the complete lack of substance in their arguments.
• For: Introduces the justification for Job's assessment of their "comfort."
• your answers: Refers to their arguments, theological pronouncements, and the entire edifice of their speeches. It encapsulates their judgmental, accusing discourse, presented as truth.
• remain full of: Implies a persistent and unchangeable quality. It's not a temporary mistake, but their core message is flawed. The verb נִשְׁאַר (nish'ar) means "to be left over, to remain."
• falsehood: The Hebrew word is מָעַל (ma'al), often translated as "treachery," "unfaithfulness," or "transgression" in relation to a covenant or trust. In this context, it signifies a deep untruth, a betrayal of truth itself, or a fundamentally deceitful argument. It implies more than mere error; it suggests a deep-seated perversion of truth or reality in their counsel.

Words-Group Analysis:

• "How then can you comfort me with empty nothings?": This phrase underscores the paradoxical nature of their so-called comfort. Job views their consolation not as alleviation but as an additional burden because it is founded on superficial and baseless reasoning (hevel). The rhetorical question emphasizes the absurdity of their position from Job's perspective. It highlights the vast disconnect between Job's lived reality of inexplicable suffering and their attempts to force it into a neat, retributive framework.
• "For your answers remain full of falsehood.": This explains why their comfort is "empty nothings." Their counsel isn't merely mistaken but deeply deceptive or faithless (ma'al). It signifies a betrayal of an accurate understanding of God, justice, or human experience. It is a harsh indictment, suggesting their arguments are not only wrong but actively lead away from truth, or worse, betray the trust of friendship and God's true nature. Their explanations are perceived as a fundamental misrepresentation.

Job 21 34 Bonus section

• The usage of hevel (emptiness, vanity) connects Job's struggle directly to themes of meaning and existence, a common thread in wisdom literature. It signifies that the friends' words offer no substance, no true explanation, and no genuine relief.
• The charge of ma'al (falsehood, treachery) implies a deep spiritual failing on the friends' part. It's not merely an intellectual error but a betrayal of truth that borders on spiritual deception or faithlessness, as their words misrepresent God's justice.
• Job's words reflect the suffering of many who receive counsel from well-meaning individuals who rely on simplistic answers to complex suffering, rather than empathetically engaging with the mystery of pain. It challenges the assumption that all suffering is direct punishment for specific sin.
• Theological debates throughout church history, such as those regarding predestination, free will, or the problem of evil, often echo the tension present in Job regarding human attempts to systematize divine ways vs. accepting divine mystery and sovereignty.
• This verse can be seen as Job defending God's sovereignty from his friends' overly deterministic theology, even though Job doesn't yet fully understand God's purposes in his suffering. He knows their explanation is false because it doesn't align with his righteous life or with what he observes in the world.

Job 21 34 Commentary

Job 21:34 serves as Job's decisive condemnation of his friends' entire theological framework and their persistent misapplication of it to his suffering. He calls their comfort "empty nothings" (hevel), a term redolent with the futility described in Ecclesiastes, emphasizing the sheer valuelessness and lack of substance in their counsel. Their arguments, Job declares, "remain full of falsehood" (ma'al). This word is significant; it often denotes treachery, unfaithfulness, or a breach of trust, particularly against God. Job isn't simply saying his friends are wrong; he’s implying that their understanding of divine justice and suffering is not only inaccurate but constitutes a fundamental deviation from truth or a betrayal of what genuine comfort should be. They presume to speak for God but do so based on a simplistic, deterministic view of divine retribution that Job’s experience – and the broader reality he observes – utterly refutes. This verse encapsulates the theological impasse in Job: human attempts to box God into predictable patterns clash with the mysterious, sovereign reality of divine operation and suffering. True comfort would acknowledge mystery and provide presence, not offer false certainties.