Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 21:5
Mark me, and be astonished, and lay [your] hand upon [your] mouth.
5. The mystery which he will lay before them if they will mark it will strike them dumb. To “lay the hand upon the mouth” is a gesture of awe-struck silence, cf. ch. Job 40:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mark me – Margin, look unto. Literally, Look upon me. That is, attentively look on me, on my sufferings, on my disease, and my losses. See if I am a proper object of repreach and mockery – see if I have not abundant reason to be in deep distress when God has afflicted me in a manner so unusual and mysterious.
And be astonished – Silent astonishment should be evinced instead of censure. You should wonder that a man whose life has been a life of piety, should exhibit the spectacle which you now behold, while so many proud contemners of God are permitted to live in affluence and ease.
And lay your hand upon your mouth – As a token of silence and wonder. So Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, Wherefore, he had laid his finger on his mouth as a symbol of silence and admiration – echemuthias kai siopes sumbolon.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. Mark me, and be astonished] Consider and compare the state in which I was once, with that in which I am now; and be astonished at the judgments and dispensations of God. You will then be confounded; you will put your hands upon your mouths, and keep silent.
Putting the hand on the mouth, or the finger on the lips, was the token of silence. The Egyptian god Harpocrates, who was the god of silence, is represented with his finger compressing his upper lip.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Consider what I am about to say concerning the wonderful prosperity of the worst of men, and the intolerable pressures of some good men, such as I have manifested and shall prove that I am, and it is able to fill you that are but spectators with astonishment and horror at the strange and mysterious course of Divine Providence herein; and therefore it is no wonder if I, who suffer such things from that God whom I have so faithfully served, am overwhelmed with the sense of it.
Lay your hand upon your mouth, i.e. be silent, as this phrase is oft used, as Job 40:4; Pro 10:32; Mic 7:16; for shame forbear to vex me with your words: or, you will lay, &c.; the imperative being put for the future, as is usual. I am persuaded you will be silenced and convinced by what I shall say.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. lay . . . hand upon . . . mouth(Pro 30:32; Jdg 18:19).So the heathen god of silence was pictured with his hand on hismouth. There was enough in Job’s case to awe them into silence (Job17:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Mark me,…. Or “look at me” n; not at his person, which was no lovely sight to behold, being covered with boils from head to foot, his flesh clothed with worms and clods of dust, his skin broken, yea, scarce any left; however, he was become a mere skeleton, reduced to skin and bone; but at his sorrows, and sufferings, and consider and contemplate them in their minds, and see if there was any sorrow like his, or anyone that suffered as he did, and in such pitiful circumstances; or that they would have a regard to his words, and well weigh what he had said, or was about to say, concerning his own case, or concerning the providences of God with respect to good and bad men, and especially the latter:
and be astonished; at what had befallen him, at his afflictions, being an innocent man, and not chargeable with any crime for which it could be thought that these came upon him; and at the different methods of Providence towards good men and bad men, the one being afflicted, and the other in prosperous circumstances, see Job 17:8;
and lay [your] hand upon [your] mouth; and be silent, since such dispensations of Providence are unsearchable, and past finding out; and, as they are not to be accounted for, are not to be spoken against: and it would have been well if Job had taken the same advice himself, and had been still, and owned and acknowledged the sovereignty of God, and not opened his mouth in the manner he had done, and cursed the of his birth, and complained of hard treatment at the hand of God perhaps his sense may be, that he would have his friends be silent, and forbear drawing the characters of men from the outward dealings of God with them. This phrase is used of silence in Job 29:9; thus Harpocrates, the god of silence with the Heathens, is always pictured with his hand to his mouth.
n “respicite ad me”, Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5. Hand upon your mouth (Compare Job 40:4; Pro 30:32; Mic 7:16.) The Egyptian mode of indicating silence was by placing the hand on the mouth. One of their deities, Horus, is represented as a child seated on a lotus leaf with his finger on his lips. This attitude however, Wilkinson thinks, was only illustrative of his extreme youth.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 21:5-15. Mark me, and be admonished, &c. The coldest reader cannot be insensible of the beauties of the poetry in this speech of Job. We will not, therefore, attempt to point them out, but attend to the thread of reasoning. As Job well knew that the account he was about to give of the prosperity of wicked men, however necessary to his argument, would have something shocking in it to the ears of those to whom it was addressed; the delicacy with which he introduces it is inimitable: Mark me, &c.wherefore do the wicked live, (Job 21:7.)become old, yea, are mighty in power? As if he had said, “That thus it is, in fact, is plain: with awe and reverence I speak it; but, as for you, I am persuaded that you will never be able, upon your principles, to account for it.” The description which follows, of a prosperous estate, is such as might indeed justly create envy, were a wicked man in any estate to be envied; for we have here the chief ingredients of human happiness, as it respects this life, brought together, and described in terms exactly suiting the simplicity of manners, and the way of living in Job’s time and country: as, first, security and safety to themselves and families; Job 21:9. Their houses are safe from fear,of the incursions of robbers, we may suppose, or the depredations of the neighbouring clans, so usual in those ancient times, and of which Job had felt the mischievous effects: next, health, or a freedom from diseases, called, in the language of that age, the rod of God. See 1Sa 26:10. To this is added plenty of cattle, the riches of those times; Job 21:10. Next comes a numerous and hopeful offspring; and what a rural picture has he drawn of them! Job 21:11. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance: one sees them, as it were, tripping upon the green, with the flush of health and joy in their looks: They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ; Job 21:12. Lastly, and to crown all, after a prosperous and pleasant life, comes an easy death: They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave; according to Schultens, their days pass on in a continual flow of prosperity, till they drop into the grave without a groan. As every thing in this divine poem is wonderful, there is scarcely any thing more to be admired in it, than the variety of descriptions that are given us of human life, in its most exalted prosperity on the one hand, and its deepest distresses on the other; for this is what their subject leads them to enlarge upon on both sides, with this only difference, that the three friends were for limiting prosperity to the good, whereas Job insists upon a mixed distribution of things from the hand of Providence; but as all of them, in almost every speech, enlarge upon one or other of these topics, the variety of imagery and colouring in which they paint to us these different estates, all drawn from nature, and suiting the simplicity of those ancient times, is inexpressibly amusing and entertaining: then, the religious cast thrown over them, considered as the dispensations of Providence, that we can receive neither good nor evil, but from God, the Judge of all, a point acknowledged on both hands, is what renders these descriptions interesting and affecting to us in the highest degree; and the whole, if well considered, affords no contemptible argument of the antiquity of the book. See Peters, and the next note. Mr. Heath renders the 8th verse, Their power is established on a firm footing; their people are in their presence, and their offspring before their eyes.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 21:5 Mark me, and be astonished, and lay [your] hand upon [your] mouth.
Ver. 5. Mark me, and be astonied ] Heb. Look upon me. He had said before, Hear and hear, now, Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Mark it, I say, and stand amazed at it. Did you ever find any on this side hell so sore afflicted as I am? Is it not because you are not duly affected with my miseries, that ye are so regardless of my discourse? Strange that my sorrows should be great enough to work astonishment, and yet not great enough to deserve attention. O mark first what I suffer, and then what I speak.
And (this once done) lay your hand upon your mouth] Be swift to hear, but slow to speak; yea, spare to speak at all in this case. The Greek proverb admonisheth men either to be silent or to speak something that is better than silence. Harpocrates, the heathenish god of silence, was pictured with his finger laid upon his lips.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
lay your hand, &c. A token of having no answer.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mark me: Heb. Look unto me
be astonished: Job 2:12, Job 17:8, Job 19:20, Job 19:21
lay your: Job 29:9, Job 40:4, Jdg 18:19, Psa 39:9, Pro 30:32, Amo 5:13, Mic 7:16, Rom 11:33
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 21:5. Mark me, and be astonished Consider what I am about to say, concerning the wonderful prosperity of the worst of men, and the pressures of some good men; and it will fill you with astonishment at the mysterious conduct of Divine Providence herein. And lay your hand upon your mouth Be silent: quietly wait the issue; and judge nothing before the time. Gods way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters. When we cannot account for what he doth, in suffering the wicked to prosper, and the godly to be afflicted, nor fathom the depth of those proceedings, it becomes us to sit down and admire them. Upright men shall be astonished at this, chap. Job 17:8. Be you so.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
21:5 Mark me, and be astonished, and lay [your] hand upon [your] {c} mouth.
(c) He charges them as though they were not able to comprehend his feeling of God’s judgment, and exhorts them therefore to silence.