Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand on your mouth.
Mark me.
Job 2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
Job 17:8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
Job 19:20,21 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth…
lay your
Job 29:9 The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Judges 18:19 And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?
put your hand over your mouth.
This expression is a call for silence and reflection. In the cultural context, putting one's hand over the mouth was a gesture of astonishment or submission, often used when one was confronted with something beyond understanding or when one needed to refrain from speaking out of turn. Job is urging his friends to stop their accusations and consider the gravity of his situation. This gesture is also seen in Proverbs 30:32, where it is advised to put a hand over the mouth to avoid speaking foolishly. The call for silence can be seen as a precursor to the divine speeches later in the book, where God Himself will speak and reveal deeper truths about His nature and the world. This anticipates the ultimate revelation of Christ, who is the Word made flesh, bringing the final and complete revelation of God's purposes.
• Job invites his friends to fix their eyes on his circumstances, not their assumptions.
• He is a living proof that suffering can strike the righteous without immediate cause (Job 1:8; 2:3).
• Cross references: Job also pleads, “Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19:26–27), insisting his present state is worth serious reflection. Like Jerusalem’s lament, “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see” (Lamentations 1:12), Job calls for honest observation rather than simplistic judgment.
• The sight of Job’s agony should stun his friends into reverent silence.
• Job 17:8 notes, “The upright are appalled at this,” showing that righteous observers should recoil at unexplained suffering.
• Psalm 40:3 records how a new song from deliverance causes “many to see and fear,” the same kind of awe Job expects, though coming from affliction rather than rescue.
• Their shock ought to correct their theology: God’s ways are higher than tidy formulas (Isaiah 55:8–9).
• This ancient gesture signals humility and restraint.
• Job longs for his friends to stop their accusations and listen (Job 13:5: “If only you would be silent; that would be your wisdom!”).
• In Job 29:9 princes “put their hands on their mouths” in deference, illustrating the respect Job now requests.
• Proverbs 30:32 advises, “Put your hand over your mouth” when boasting or plotting evil, and Micah 7:16 pictures nations doing the same when they see God’s works.
• By ceasing their speeches, Job’s friends would make room for God’s eventual revelation (Job 38:1–2).
Job 21:5 issues a threefold call: look honestly at suffering, respond with awestruck compassion, and silence hasty judgments. When believers face inexplicable pain, Scripture insists we observe, revere, and humble ourselves, trusting that God’s purposes, though hidden, remain righteous and sure.
Verses 5, 6. - Here we have an abrupt transition. Job is about to controvert Zophar's theory of the certain retribution that overtakes the wicked man in this life, and to maintain that, on the contrary, he usually prospers (vers. 7-18). Knowing that, in thus running counter to the general religious teaching, he will arouse much horror and indignation on the part of those who hear him, he prefaces his remarks with a notice that they will cause astonishment, and an acknowledgment that he himself cannot reflect upon the subject without a feeling of alarm and dismay. He thus hopes partially to disarm his opponents. Verse 5. - Mark me; literally, look to me; i.e. "attend to me," for I am about to say something well worth attention. And be astonished. Prepare yourselves, i.e., for something that will astonish you. And lay your hand upon your mouth. Harpocrates, the Egyptian god of silence, was often represented with his finger on his lips (see the author's 'History of Ancient Egypt,' vol. 1. p. 362). The symbolism is almost universal. Job begs his auditors to "refrain their lips," and, however much astonished, to keep silence until he has concluded.