Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.
Parallel translations
- KJV Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
- BSB Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.
- NKJV Look at me and be astonished; Put your hand over your mouth.
- NASB “Look at me, and be astonished, And put your hand over your mouth.
- NLT Look at me and be stunned. Put your hand over your mouth in shock.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job asks his friends to look at him and be shocked into silence, covering their mouths in astonishment. He is about to say something that overturns their tidy theology.
Overview
Job invites his friends to truly behold his suffering before they speak. Laying a hand on the mouth was a gesture of stunned silence (cf. Job 40:4). He calls them to humility before the mystery of his case, a posture all are wise to take before God's inscrutable dealings.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 29:9The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
- Job 40:4“Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
- Judg 18:19They said to him, “Hold your peace, put your hand on your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?”
- Prov 30:32“If you have done foolishly in lifting up yourself, or if you have thought evil, put your hand over your mouth.
- Mic 7:16The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will lay their hand on their mouth. Their ears will be deaf.
- Job 2:12When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.
- Rom 11:33Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
- Amos 5:13Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.
- Job 17:8Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
- Job 19:20–21My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- Ps 39:9I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it.
Resources, by level
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 21:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.