the Second Week after Easter
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Easy-to-Read Version
Job 40:4
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalDevotionals:
- DailyParallel Translations
I am so insignificant. How can I answer you?I place my hand over my mouth.
"Behold, I am of small account. What shall 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 you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
"I am not worthy; I cannot answer you anything, so I will put my hand over my mouth.
"Indeed, I am completely unworthy—how could I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth to silence myself.
"Behold, I am of little importance and contemptible; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth.
"Behold, I am insignificant; what can I say in response to You? I put my hand on my mouth.
"Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
Beholde, I am vile: what shall I answere thee? I will lay mine hand vpon my mouth.
"Behold, I am insignificant; what can I respond to You?I place my hand over my mouth.
"Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.
Who am I to answer you?
"I am too ashamed; I have nothing to say. I lay my hand over my mouth.
Behold, I am nought: what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.
Behold, I am unworthy; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.
"Look, I am insignificant. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
Behold, I am vile! What shall I answer You? I will put my hand to my mouth.
Beholde, I am to vyle a personne, to answere the, therfore will I laye my hande vpon my mouth.
Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? I lay my hand upon my mouth.
Truly, I am of no value; what answer may I give to you? I will put my hand on my mouth.
Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer Thee? I lay my hand upon my mouth.
Behold, I am vile, what shall I answere thee? I wil lay my hand vpon my mouth.
Beholde, I am vyle, what shall I aunswere thee, [therefore] I wyll laye my hande vpon my mouth.
Hast thou an arm like the Lord’s? or dost thou thunder with a voice like his?
Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? I lay mine hand upon my mouth.
and seide, What may Y answere, which haue spoke liytli? Y schal putte myn hond on my mouth.
Look, I am of small account; What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.
"Behold, I am vile; What shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth.
"I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand.
"See, I am not important. What can I answer You? I put my hand on my mouth.
"See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
Lo! I am of no account, what shall I reply to thee? My hand, have I laid on my mouth:
(39-34) What can I answer, who hath spoken inconsiderately? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.
"Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee? I lay my hand on my mouth.
Lo, I have been vile, What do I return to Thee? My hand I have placed on my mouth.
"Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Behold: Job 42:6, Genesis 18:27, Genesis 32:10, 2 Samuel 24:10, 1 Kings 19:4, Ezra 9:6, Ezra 9:15, Nehemiah 9:33, Psalms 51:4, Psalms 51:5, Isaiah 6:5, Isaiah 53:6, Isaiah 64:6, Daniel 9:5, Daniel 9:7, Luke 5:8, Luke 15:18, Luke 15:19, Luke 18:13, 1 Timothy 1:15
what: Job 9:31-35, Job 16:21, Job 23:4-7, Job 31:37
I will: Job 21:5, Job 29:9, Judges 18:19, Psalms 39:9, Proverbs 30:32, Micah 7:16, Habakkuk 2:20, Zechariah 2:13
Reciprocal: Genesis 18:30 - General Genesis 44:16 - What shall we say Leviticus 13:12 - cover all Leviticus 13:23 - General 1 Samuel 7:6 - We have sinned 2 Samuel 6:22 - in mine 1 Kings 18:21 - answered Job 1:22 - charged God foolishly Job 13:2 - General Job 13:15 - but I will Job 13:22 - General Job 30:8 - viler Job 31:35 - Oh Psalms 106:33 - he spake Isaiah 43:26 - Put Isaiah 52:15 - kings Lamentations 1:11 - see Lamentations 3:29 - putteth Ezekiel 16:63 - and never Jonah 4:9 - I do well to be angry Zephaniah 1:7 - thy Matthew 15:27 - Truth Mark 14:31 - he spake Romans 6:21 - whereof 1 Corinthians 4:4 - yet Galatians 3:11 - that
Cross-References
The Midianite traders later sold Joseph in Egypt. They sold him to Potiphar, an officer of the king of Egypt and the captain of his palace guards.
The traders who bought Joseph took him down to Egypt. They sold him to the captain of Pharaoh's guard, Potiphar.
He freed the wine server and gave him his job back, and once again the wine server put a cup of wine in Pharaoh's hand.
But the wine server did not remember to help Joseph. He said nothing about him to Pharaoh. The wine server forgot about Joseph.
Depend on the Lord . Trust in him, and he will help you.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
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 Isaiah 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;
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 Psalms 39:1.
a קלתי "levis sum", Cocceius, Michaelis; "leviter locutus sum", V. L.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
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.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 40:4. 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.
