Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.
Parallel translations
- WEB Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.
- KJV Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon 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 speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.
- Job 40:4“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.
- Judg 18:19“Be quiet,” they told him. “Put your hand over your mouth and come with us and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest for the house of one person or a priest for a tribe and family in Israel?”
- Prov 30:32If you have foolishly exalted yourself or if you have plotted evil, put your hand over your mouth.
- Mic 7:16Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their might. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will become deaf.
- Job 2:12When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head.
- Rom 11:33O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
- Amos 5:13Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.
- Job 17:8The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
- Job 19:20–21My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- Ps 39:9I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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.