Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
Parallel translations
- WEB Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on 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 talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
- Job 40:4Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
- Judg 18:19And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?
- Prov 30:32If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.
- Mic 7:16The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
- Job 2:12And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
- Rom 11:33O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
- Amos 5:13Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
- Job 17:8Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
- Job 19:20–21My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
- Ps 39:9I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
Resources, by level
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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.