Psalmi 40:4

Clementine Latin Vulgate

Et si habes brachium sicut Deus ? et si voce simili tonas ?

Parallel Translations

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Et si habes brachium sicut Deus?
et si voce simili tonas?

Nova Vulgata (1979)
"Ecce leviter locutus sum, quid respondebo tibi? Manum meam ponam super os meum.

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

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.