Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 21:3
Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.
3. mock on ] This last word is sing. and seems addressed to Zophar the last speaker, whose pictures of the fate of the wicked deeply wounded Job. Having heard his account of the prosperity of the wicked, they shall have leave then to proceed with their bitter taunts and insinuations if they have a mind.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Suffer me that I may speak – Allow me to speak without interruption, or bear with me while I freely express my sentiments – it is all that I now ask.
And after that I have spoken, mock on – Resume your reproaches, if you will, when I am done. I ask only the privilege of expressing my thoughts on a very important point, and when that is done, I will allow you to resume your remarks as you have done before, and you may utter your sentiments without interruption. Or it may be, that Job utters this in a kind of triumph, and that he feels that what he was about to say was so important that it would end the argument; and that all they could say after that would be mere mockery and reviling. The word rendered mock on ( laag) means, originally, to stammer, to speak unintelligibly – then, to speak in a barbarous or foreign language – then, to deride or to mock, to ridicule or insult. The idea is, that they might mock his woes, and torture his feelings as they had done, if they would only allow him to express his sentiments.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Suffer me that I may speak without such interruption as you have given me, Job 20:2; and if I do not defend my cause with solid and convincing arguments, go on in your scoffs if you please.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. literally, “Beginyour mockings” (Job 17:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Suffer me that I may speak,…. To go on with his discourse, without any interruption, until he had finished it; as he before craves their attention, here he entreats their patience to hear him out, as well as to give him leave to begin; they might by their gestures seem as if they were breaking up and departing; or they raised a tumultuous clamour, to hinder his proceeding to reply; or he might fear, that if he was allowed to speak, they would break in upon him before he had done, as they had already; or “bear me”, as several of the Jewish commentators explain the phrase; though what he was going to say might sit heavy upon their minds, and be very burdensome, grating, and uneasy to them; yet he entreats they would endure it patiently, until he had made an end of speaking:
and after that I have spoken, mock on; as they had already,
Job 12:4; they had mocked not at his troubles and afflictions, but at his words and arguments in vindication of his innocence; and now all he entreats of them is, that they would admit him to speak once more, and to finish his discourse; and then if they thought fit, or if they could, to go on with their scoffs and derisions of him; if he could but obtain this favour, he should be easy, he should not regard their mockings, but bear them patiently; and he seems to intimate, that he thought he should be able to say such things to them, that would spoil their mocking, and prevent it for the future; so the Greek version renders it, “thou shalt not laugh”; and the words being singular have led many to think, that Zophar, who spoke last, is particularly intended, though it may respect everyone of his friends.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3. Mock on Literally, thou mayest mock. He means Zophar, whose remarks were thus far the most cruel and lacerating of all. In his would-be coup-de-grace Zophar exhausted himself, and speaks no more. Job’s individualizing of Zophar here, as of Eliphaz in Job 16:3, and of Bildad in Job 26:2-4, spurs the sufferer up to the highest strains of oratory.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 21:3 Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.
Ver. 3. Suffer me that I may speak ] Say that it be suffering to you to hear me (for now I see you have, as they write of some creatures, fel in aure ), yet put yourselves to the pain of hearing me, and bear me, though I am burdensome to you, though my speeches cross the grain of your spirits. See 2Co 11:1 . I will promise you to speak nothing worthy of a scoff, such as was that of Theophrastus, Let him shun the talkative man who would not be put into a fit of a fever (Theoph. Charact. cap. de garrul.). Or that of Aristotle, before whom when one, having made a long and idle discourse, concluded it thus, I doubt I have been too tedious unto you, sir philosopher, with my many words: In good sooth, said Aristotle, you have not been tedious to me, for I gave no heed to anything you said (Plut. de Garrulit.).
And after I have spoken, mock on
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
mock on = mock [thou] on, as if pointing to him.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
that I may: Job 13:13, Job 33:31-33
mock on: Job 12:4, Job 12:5, Job 13:9, Job 16:10, Job 16:20, Job 17:2
Reciprocal: Job 7:11 – I will not Job 13:5 – General Job 13:6 – General Job 27:12 – altogether Job 32:20 – I will speak Job 36:2 – Suffer