“Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
Parallel Translations
-
“Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
-
Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
-
Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer Thee? I lay my hand upon my mouth.
Cross-references (30)
Passages linked to Job 40:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 30:32 “If you have done foolishly in lifting up yourself, or if you have thought evil, put your hand over your mouth.
- Job 29:9 The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
- Job 21:5 Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.
- Job 42:6 Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
- Genesis 18:27 Abraham answered, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes.
- Judges 18:19 They said to him, “Hold your peace, put your hand on your mouth, and go with us. Be a father and a priest to us. 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?”
- Ezra 9:6 and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.
- Genesis 32:10 I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I crossed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.
- Psalms 39:9 I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it.
- Isaiah 6:5 Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”
- Micah 7:16 The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will lay their hand on their mouth. Their ears will be deaf.
- Zechariah 2:13 Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”
- Luke 5:8 But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.”
- Luke 15:18-19 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.” ’
- Luke 18:13 But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
- 1 Timothy 1:15 The saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
- 2 Samuel 24:10 David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”
- 1 Kings 19:4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”
- Ezra 9:15 Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this.”
- Nehemiah 9:33 However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.
- Job 9:31-35 yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes will abhor me. For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment. There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid; then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.
- Job 16:21 that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!
- Job 23:4-7 I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me. There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.
- Job 31:37 I would declare to him the number of my steps. as a prince would I go near to him.
- Psalms 51:4-5 Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.
- Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- Isaiah 64:6 For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
- Daniel 9:5 we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances.
- Daniel 9:7 “Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.
- Habakkuk 2:20 But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I…
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Ver. 4. Behold, I am vile] Light and little worth; and therefore deserve to be slighted and laid by, as a broken vessel. The humble man vilifies, yea, nullifies, himself before God, as Abraham, Gen 18:27; as Agur, Pro 30:3; as Paul, Eph 3:8; as that martyr who cried out, Gehenna sum Domine, Lord, Thou art heaven, but I am hell, &c. Tantillitas nostra, saith Ignatius of himself and his colleagues. Behold, I am an abject, saith Job here, contemptible and inconsiderable. This was well, but not all; an excellent confession, but not full enough: his meanness he acknowledgeth, and that he was no fit match for God; but not his sinfulness, with desire of pardon and deprecation of punishment; God therefore gives him not over so, but sets upon him a second time, Job 40:6, and brings him to it, Job 42:1. There must be some proportion between a man’s sin and his repentance, Ezr 9:1-15, and this God will bring all his Jobs to ere he leave them.
Read full note →
What shall I answer thee?] I am silenced, and set down; I see there is no reasoning against thee; I acknowledge thy greatness so plainly and plentifully demonstrated in the foregoing discourse; and am well pleased that thou shouldest be justified when thou speakest and overcome when thou judgest, Psa 51:4 Rom 3:4.
I will lay my hand upon my mouth] I that have spoken more freely and boldly than I ought, Et ore patulo multa sine iudicio effutivi, and have opened my mouth more wide than was meet, will henceforth be better advised, and keep my mouth with a bridle, or muzzle, as Psa 31:1. {See Trapp on "Job 21:5"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I am vile, what am I, a mean and…
I am vile, what am I, a mean and contemptible creature that should presume to contend with my Maker and Judge? I confess my fault and folly.
What shall I answer thee? I neither desire nor am able to dispute with thee. I will for the future bridle my tongue, and instead of contesting with thee, do here humbly and willingly submit myself to thee.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Behold, I am vile,.... Or "light" (a); which may…
Behold, I am vile,.... Or "light" (a); which may have respect either to his words and arguments, which he thought had force in them, but now he saw they had none; or to his works and actions, the integrity of his life, and the uprightness of his ways, which he imagined were weighty and of great importance, but now being weighed in the balances of justice were found wanting; or it may refer to his original meanness and distance from God, being dust and ashes, and nothing in comparison of him; and so the Septuagint version is, "I am nothing"; see Isa 40:17; or rather to the original vileness and sinfulness of his nature he had now a sight of, and saw how he had been breaking forth in unbecoming expressions concerning God and his providence: the nature of man is exceeding vile and sinful; his heart desperately wicked; his thoughts, and the imaginations of them, evil, and that continually; his mind and conscience are defiled; his affections inordinate, and his understanding and will sadly depraved; he is vile in soul and body; of all which an enlightened man is convinced, and will acknowledge;
what shall I answer thee? I am not able to answer thee, who am but dust and ashes; what more can I say than to acknowledge my levity, vanity, and vileness? he that talked so big, and in such a blustering manner of answering God, as in Job 13:22; now has nothing to say for himself;
Read full note →
I will lay mine hand upon my mouth; impose silence upon himself, and as it were lay a restraint upon himself from speaking: it looks as if there were some workings in Job's heart; he thought he could say something, and make some reply, but durst not, for fear of offending yet more and more, and therefore curbed it in; see Psa 39:1.
(a) "levis sum", Cocceius, Michaelis; "leviter locutus sum", V. L.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. Behold, I am vile] I acknowledge my…
Verse 4. Behold, I am vile] I acknowledge my inward defilement. I cannot answer thee.
I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.] I cannot excuse myself, and I must be dumb before thee.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Behold, I am vile: what shall I answer thee?…
Behold, I am vile: what shall I answer thee? - “Instead of being able to argue my cause, and to vindicate myself as I had expected, I now see that I am guilty, and I have nothing to say.” He had argued boldly with his friends. He had, before them, maintained his innocence of the charges which they brought against him, and had supposed that he would be able to maintain the same argument before God. But when the opportunity was given, he felt that he was a poor, weak man; a guilty and miserable offender. It is a very different thing to maintain our cause before God, from what it is to maintain it before people; and though we may attempt to vindicate our own righteousness when we argue with our fellow-creatures, yet when we come to maintain it before God we shall be dumb. On earth, people vindicate themselves; what will they do when they come to stand before God in the judgment?
I will lay mine hand upon my mouth - An expression of silence. Catlin, in his account of the Mandan Indians, says that this is a common custom with them when anything wonderful occurs. Some of them laid their hands on their mouths and remained in this posture by the hour, as an expression of astonishment at the wonders produced by the brush in the art of painting; compare Job 21:5, note; Job 29:9, note.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain I am (too) vile (to reply). It is a…
I am (too) vile (to reply). It is a very different thing to vindicate ourselves before God, from what it is before men. Job could do the latter, not the former.
lay . . . hand . . . upon . . . mouth--I have no plea to offer (Job 21:5; Jdg 18:19).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain Job confesses that he is base, and that he…
JOB’S ANSWER — HIS SELF-HUMILIATION AND CONFESSION, 4, 5.
Job confesses that he is base, and that he has been foolish in his repeated speeches; and, finally, retracting his arrogant challenges of God, covenants with him that he will no longer contend with Deity, 4, 5.
Read full note →
“From the marvellous in nature, Job now divines that which is marvellous in his affliction. His humiliation under the mysteries of nature, is at the same time humiliation under the mystery of affliction; and only now, when he penitently reverses the mystery he has hitherto censured, is it time that its inner glory should be revealed to him. The bud is mature, and can now burst forth in order to disclose the blended colors of its natural beauty.” — Delitzsch.
4. Behold, I am vile — In the sense of mean, despicable: קלתי; a word Job had in part applied to the wicked — “light (קל) is he on the face of the waters.” (Job_24:18.) Job’s sense of shame is quickened. He feels his folly; but is not yet sufficiently sensible of his spiritual deformity. Hence the necessity that God should speak again. The conciseness of the reply points to trouble within; deep conviction is never wordy. It is thus with the cry “God be merciful to me, the sinner.” Luk_18:13. Hand upon my mouth — See Job_21:5; Job_29:9.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. behold, I am vile] The word vile here…
4. behold, I am vile] The word vile here is not a moral term, it signifies, mean, small. The verse may be read,
Behold I am too mean; what shall I answer thee?
Read full note →
I lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job is abased before Jehovah; he feels his meanness and is silent, comp. ch. Job_21:5, Job_29:9.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Humbled before God.
Humbled before God.
At length Job is brought near to the state of mind that God desires to see in him. Proud and defiant before the unwise and unjust attacks of his human accusers, he is humbled in the dust in presence of the revelation of God.
Read full note →
I THE VISION OF GOD IN HIS WORKS HUMBLES US. Job has seen a succession of vivid pictures of the works of God in nature. They all transcend human efforts. Then how great must the Author of nature be! How small are we in his awful presence! Pride is always a form of godlessness. We forget God when we exalt ourselves. Our self-exaltation is only possible while we shut ourselves up in a little world. When we see God we are humbled. Now, this is not only because God is supremely powerful. There is some heroism in the weak maintaining their right in the presence of the strong. But God"s greatness in nature is seen in intellectual and moral features. The wonderful thought of God impressed upon his works reveals a mind infinitely greater than the human mind; and the care with which God provides for all his creatures wild asses, heedless ostriches, and repulsive ravens, as well as those creatures that seem more deserving of his providence shows us how good God is. Thus the wisdom and goodness of God, added to the power that makes resistance useless, crown the revealed character of God with glory, and invite our humble adoration.
II SILENCE BEFORE GOD IS THE TRUE EXPRESSION OF HUMILITY. It cannot be said that Job is as yet deeply conscious of sin. The "vileness" of which he makes confession is rather his mean estate, his poor, feeble, human helplessness, than moral guilt. Therefore it does not need to be made much of, or regarded as anything like a full confession. It is, however, the mark of humility to admit it, and then to relapse into silence. This is the Condition to which the great argument of the drama is designed to bring its readers. We are too busy with our own performances in religion. In prayer we have too many words to speak to God. We are always telling him what he knows already, and often dictating to him what we think he should be doing, instead of patiently waiting for his voice and humbly submitting to his will. There is room for more silence in religion and in all life.
III SILENT HUMILITY IS A PREPARATION FOR EXALTATION, At the end of the book we discover that God exalts Job and loads him with favour and prosperity. But he must be humbled first. The later honour is only possible after Job has abased himself. So long as he justified himself and arraigned the justice of God, he could not be restored and exalted. Thus the poem shows to us the way in which God disciplines his servants and prepares them to enjoy his goodness. Humility is the door to honour. This is a very Christian truth. It is taught by Christ: "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." It is gloriously illustrated in the life and death and exaltation of Christ. W.F.A. (see Php_2:5-11)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 40:4 I am nothing (cp. 42:6): Job was not…
40:4 I am nothing (cp. 42:6): Job was not repenting from sin; like Abraham, he recognized his unworthiness (Gen 18:27). • Job had asked his comforters to cover their mouth to acknowledge shock (21:5); here he does so himself in reaction to his own rash words.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.