to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
thoughts
מַחְשְׁבֽוֹתֵיכֶ֑םmach.she.vo.tei.Khem
H4284
a contrivance · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
devices
וּ֝מְזִמּ֗וֹתu.me.zi.Mot
H4209
a plan · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural absolute
imagine
תַּחְמֹֽסוּtach.Mo.su
H2554
to be violent · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Luke 5:22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?
Psalms 119:86 All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; help thou me.
Job 4:8-11 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
Job 5:3-5 I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
Job 8:3-6 Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?
Job 15:20-35 The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
Job 20:5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
Job 20:29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 21:27–end
In these verses,
I. Job opposes the opinion of his friends, which he saw they still adhered to, that the wicked are sure to fall into such visible and remarkable ruin as Job had now fallen into, and none but the wicked, upon which principle they condemned Job as a wicked man. "I know your thoughts," says Job (Job 21:27); "I know you will not agree with me; for your judgments are tinctured and biassed by your piques and prejudices against me, and the devices which you wrongfully imagine against my comfort and honour: and how can such men be convinced?" Job's friends were ready to say, in answer to his discourse concerning the prosperity of the wicked, "Where is the house of the prince? Job 21…
Their wrongful thoughts against Job are stated by him in Job 21:28. They do not honestly name Job, but insinuate his guilt.
John Gill on Job 21:27
Behold, I know your thoughts,.... God only truly, really, and in fact, knows the thoughts of men; this is his peculiar prerogative, he only is the searcher of the hearts and the trier of the reins of the children of men. Christ, the eternal Logos, or Word, by his being a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, appears to be truly God. No man knows the things of a than, or the thoughts of his heart, but himself, and such to whomsoever he reveals them; but a wise and understanding man, a careful observer of men and things, may make some shrewd guesses at the thoughts of others, by hints and half words, or sentences expressed by them; by the show of their countenance, which is the i…
27 Behold I know your thoughts
And the stratagems, with which ye overpower me!
28 When ye say: Where is the house of the tyrant,
And where the pavilions of the wicked - :
29 Have ye not asked those who travel,
Their memorable things ye could surely not disown:
30 That the wicked was spared in the day of calamity,
In the day of the outburst of wrath they were led away.
31 Who liketh to declare to him his way to his face?
And hath he done aught, who will recompense it to him?
Their thoughts which he sees through, are their secret thoughts that he is such an evil-doer reaping the reward of his deeds. מזמּות (which occurs both of right measures, good wise designs, Pro 5:2; Pro 8:12, and of artfu…
The Church Fathers
"So I know, you have daringly raised against me. You do not speak with measure.
Ver. 27, 28. Behold I know your thoughts, and the devices that ye wrongfully imagine against me. For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwellings of the wicked? 63. For they had imagined him a wicked man, whom they saw, his substance gone, in a temporal way ruined. But the holy man judges them with a lofty review in proportion as amidst the losses which he had met with, he was standing with undiminished uprightness. For how had his losses of substance without hurt him, who had not lost That Being, Whom he loved within? It goes on; Behold I know your thoughts, and your wrongful sentences against me. [1 Cor. 2, 11] As it is written, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? on what principle is it said here, Behold I know your thoughts? But the spirit of a man is then unknown to another, when it is not shewn forth either by words or deeds. For whereas it is written, Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them; [Matt. 7, 20] it is by the thing that is done outwardly that whatever lies concealed within is brought to sight. Whence too it is rightly said by Solomon, As in water the faces of beholders shine bright, so the hearts of men are plain to the wise. [Prov. 27, 19] Again blessed Job, when he declared that he knew the thoughts of his friends who were talking with him, thereupon added, and your unjust sentences against me: that by a thing open to view he might shew he had found out that which lay concealed in them. Hence he adds their very wicked sentences themselves as well, saying, For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling-places of the wicked? 67. The weak, that desire to thrive in this world's fortune, and as evils of great magnitude so dread scourges, in the case of those, whom they see smitten, measure offence by the punishment; for those, whom they see struck with the rod, they suppose have displeased God. Hence blessed Job's friends were persuaded that he, whom they be held under the rod, had been ungodly, i.e. as reckoning that if he had not been ungodly, his 'dwelling-places would have remained:' but no man thinks so, saving he who still travails with the weariness of infirmity, who sets fast the footstep of his thoughts in the gratification of the present life, who is not taught to pass on with perfect desires to the eternal land.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Self-Righteousness · 2:9; — 2:9;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
