Bible Strands
Job 21:29
Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses his friends during his defense of the observed prosperity of the wicked. He poses this rhetorical challenge after questioning the location of destroyed wicked households in Job 21:28 and before noting the wicked man's escape from calamity in Job 21:30.
The words — עֹבְרֵי דֶרֶךְ (ov.rei Da.rekh) translates to those who pass by the road, and תְנַכֵּרוּ (te.na.Ke.ru) means do you recognize or accept. Job pairs these terms to shift the debate from abstract theory to observable testimony.
The thread — The traveling motif appears in Psalms 129:8, where those who pass by offer blessings. In Job 21, the reports of travelers directly counter the friends' claims about the immediate downfall of the wicked.
Why it lands — It demands readers verify theological claims against empirical evidence rather than inherited tradition. The verse forces a confrontation between observed reality and dogmatic expectation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,
Cross-references
- Psalms 129:8 May none who pass by say to them, “The blessing of the LORD be on you; we bless you in the name of the LORD.”