Job 21 5

Job 21:5 kjv

Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.

Job 21:5 nkjv

Look at me and be astonished; Put your hand over your mouth.

Job 21:5 niv

Look at me and be appalled; clap your hand over your mouth.

Job 21:5 esv

Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth.

Job 21:5 nlt

Look at me and be stunned.
Put your hand over your mouth in shock.

Job 21 verses

Job 21 5 Meaning

Job 21:5 is a direct appeal from Job to his friends, urging them to intensely observe his state and words with a response of profound silence and astonishment. He calls for them to quiet their conventional arguments and open themselves to a different reality, signified by placing a hand over the mouth, a common gesture of awe, respectful silence, or acknowledgement of an unchallengeable truth.

Job 21 5 Context

Job 21:5 appears within Job’s third and most pointed reply to his friends, specifically to Zophar’s second speech in chapter 20. Zophar had emphatically reiterated the traditional doctrine of retribution: the wicked surely perish, and their prosperity is short-lived. Job vehemently challenges this simplistic theological framework by presenting an uncomfortable reality: the wicked often live long, prosper, and die peacefully. This verse, "Look at me, and be astonished; lay your hand over your mouth," serves as Job's dramatic introduction to this counter-argument. He urges his friends to cease their flawed theorizing, to open their eyes to the complexity of the world and his own situation, and to respond with humble, stunned silence in the face of truth that contradicts their firmly held beliefs. It is a plea for them to consider reality over dogma. Historically and culturally, silence in the presence of someone speaking weighty truth, especially one whose experience defied common understanding, was a sign of respect, reverence, or shock.

Job 21 5 Word Analysis

• Look (הַבִּ֙יטוּ֙ - habbitu): A command, imperative verb, from the root נָבַט (navat), meaning "to gaze," "to look intently," or "to behold with understanding." It implies more than a casual glance; it's a demand for careful, attentive observation. In other contexts, this root can refer to looking towards God with expectation or looking on with a sense of awe or dread. Job calls for them to deeply consider what they are seeing and hearing from him.
• at me, and (אֵלַי - ’elay): "Towards me." The personal object of their intense gaze. Job emphasizes his own suffering, prolonged distress, and unusual case, which defies their neat categories. He is himself the living paradox that challenges their theology.
• be astonished (וְהִשְּׁמ֗וּ - wəhiššəmū): Another imperative command, from the root שׁמם (shamam), meaning "to be desolated," "to be appalled," "to be astonished," or "to be dumbfounded." This term often describes a reaction to something terrifying, unexpected, or divinely appointed. Job desires that his friends be truly shaken by what he represents and by the truths he is about to present regarding the wicked. It implies a sense of awe that paralyzes one from speaking.
• lay your hand over (שִׂ֣ימוּ יָ֑ד - simu yad): A command meaning "place/put a hand." A common idiom for silence, humility, or profound thought. This gesture acknowledges an undeniable or awe-inspiring truth. It is not necessarily agreement but an admission that one has no immediate reply or adequate counter-argument.
• your mouth (לְ֝פֶ֗ה - ləpeh): "To/on the mouth." This specifies the gesture. The mouth is the source of speech, and covering it signifies the cessation of speech. In the context of the Ancient Near East, it conveyed a submission to higher authority, a recognition of something beyond comprehension, or respectful silence in a weighty situation.

Words-Group Analysis:

• "Look at me, and be astonished": This pairing underscores Job's dramatic appeal. He's asking for a contemplative gaze upon his person, not just his words. This contemplation should lead to an internal state of utter shock and bewilderment. His existence, his suffering without apparent cause, should shatter their preconceived notions about divine justice.
• "lay your hand over your mouth": This physical gesture is a concrete manifestation of the desired internal state. It's a symbolic act of shutting down arguments, of admitting incomprehension, or of reverently submitting to a reality too profound or uncomfortable to challenge with conventional wisdom. It signifies the end of debate and the beginning of humble contemplation. The phrase is also repeated by Job himself in 40:4-5 when confronted by God, indicating its powerful meaning in acknowledging unquestionable authority or truth.

Job 21 5 Bonus section

The act of placing a hand over the mouth, while signifying silence and astonishment, can also be understood as a tacit acknowledgment of one's own smallness in the face of overwhelming truth or a greater authority. It implies a posture of submission, not necessarily in defeat, but in recognition that words are inadequate or inappropriate. This is paralleled in Job's own later response to God in Job 40:4-5, "I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth," showing that he himself, though having challenged his friends, eventually adopts the same posture of humble silence before divine wisdom. This highlights the irony: Job’s friends, claiming to speak for God, fail to achieve this humility, while Job, wrestling deeply with God, eventually embodies it. The verse also underscores Job's frustration with the reductive nature of his friends' theology, which ignored lived experience for the sake of simple categorization.

Job 21 5 Commentary

Job 21:5 is a critical turning point in the book of Job, as Job escalates his challenge to his friends' rigid theological system. His command for them to "look at me, and be astonished" is not mere theatrics, but a profound appeal to empirical reality. Job's own persistent suffering, despite his righteousness (as confirmed by God in Job 1:8, 2:3), directly contradicted their belief that only the wicked truly suffer. His subsequent arguments (beginning in 21:7) detail how the wicked often flourish and escape divine retribution in this life, thus dismantling the very foundation of his friends' pronouncements.

The demand to "lay your hand over your mouth" signifies a cessation of their ill-informed arguments and a call for humble, silent introspection. It implies that the truth Job presents should be so impactful that it leaves no room for rebuttal. This gesture suggests a state of awe, bewilderment, and a recognition of the limits of human understanding and wisdom when faced with the complexities of God's ways or the realities of suffering. It challenges them to move beyond their inherited doctrines and confront the perplexing realities of life, to observe and acknowledge what genuinely occurs rather than rigidly adhere to their flawed presuppositions.