Bible Strands
Job 29:22
After my words, they spoke no more; my speech settled on them like dew.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job recounts his former social standing to an unnamed audience, describing a period when his counsel commanded complete silence from those who gathered around him. The moment occurs within Job’s retrospective monologue about his past influence before his suffering began.
The words — The Hebrew לֹא יִשְׁנוּ (lo yishnu) literally means "they did not repeat" or "they ceased speaking," while תִטּוֹף (tittof) means "it drops" or "settles." These terms record the immediate halt of conversation and the gradual absorption of Job’s speech.
The thread — The dew imagery appears in Deuteronomy 32:2, where Moses compares his teaching to dew that settles on new grass. Song of Solomon 4:11 and Isaiah 52:15 also use similar imagery of speech or presence causing silence or dripping sweetness, applied to different subjects.
Why it lands — The text states that authoritative speech naturally halts debate and leaves listeners to absorb its content without interruption. It asks the reader to recognize that genuine counsel commands attention through its weight, not through volume or persuasion.
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
After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 32:2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
- Song of Solomon 4:11 Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon.
- Isaiah 52:15 so He will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For they will see what they have not been told, and they will understand what they have not heard.
- Ezekiel 20:46 “Son of man, set your face toward the south, preach against it, and prophesy against the forest of the Negev.
- Matthew 22:46 No one was able to answer a word, and from that day on no one dared to question Him any further.
- Job 32:15 Job’s friends are dismayed, with no more to say; words have escaped them.
- Job 33:31 Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.
- Amos 7:16 Now, therefore, hear the word of the LORD. You say: ‘Do not prophesy against Israel; do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
- Micah 2:6 “Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”