Bible Strands
Job 21:5
Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks to his friends immediately after questioning why he should feel impatient if his complaint targets God rather than a man. He issues this command just before describing his own physical trembling in the following verse.
The words — הָשַׁמּוּ (ha.Sha.mu) means "be appalled" and פֶּה (Peh) means "mouth." The text commands his listeners to turn their attention to him, experience shock, and silence themselves by placing a hand over their mouth.
The thread — The gesture of covering the mouth appears in Judges 18:19, Job 29:9, and Job 40:4 as a physical marker of awe, speechlessness, or submission.
Why it lands — The verse demands that listeners halt their debate and confront the raw reality of Job's distress. It requires readers to recognize that profound suffering overrides rhetorical argument and calls for silent attention.
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
Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
Cross-references
- Judges 18:19 “Be quiet,” they told him. “Put your hand over your mouth and come with us and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest for the house of one person or a priest for a tribe and family in Israel?”
- Job 29:9 The princes refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.
- Job 40:4 “Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.
- Proverbs 30:32 If you have foolishly exalted yourself or if you have plotted evil, put your hand over your mouth.
- Job 2:12 When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head.
- Job 17:8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
- Job 19:20 My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- Psalms 39:9 I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done.
- Amos 5:13 Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.
- Micah 7:16 Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their might. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will become deaf.