to inquire · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
go
ע֣וֹבְרֵיov.rei
H5674
to cross over · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
way
דָ֑רֶךְDa.rekh
H1870
a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
know
תְנַכֵּֽרוּte.na.Ke.ru
H5234
properly · verb, piel imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
tokens
וְ֝אֹתֹתָ֗םve.'o.to.Tam
H226
a signal (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd 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
Psalms 129:8 Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD.
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…
Job, seeing that the friends will not admit him as an impartial judge, as they consider his calamities prove his guilt, begs them to ask the opinion of travellers (Lam 1:12), who have the experience drawn from observation, and who are no way connected with him. Job opposes this to Bildad (Job 8:8) and Zophar (Job 20:4).
tokens--rather, "intimations" (for example, inscriptions, proverbs, signifying the results of their observation), testimony. Literally, "signs" or proofs in confirmation of the word spoken (Isa 7:11).
John Gill on Job 21:29
Have ye not asked them that go by the way?.... Did you not ask every traveller you met with on the road the above question? not which was the way to Job's house, which they knew very well, but in what condition that and his sons were? or what was the case of him and his family? and what was his character? or what was thought of him now since his unhappy circumstances?
and do ye not know their tokens? by which it might be known in what a plight he and his family were, and what were the marks, signs, and characters they gave of him: "have ye not asked?" &c. the sense seems to be this, that if they had not asked, they might and should have asked of travellers the above things relating to himse…
"Ask those who pass on the way. Those who do not enjoy it, but cross it without stopping. "And you will know what signs to recognize them. These are the traits of impiety, which are signaled by those who pass by predicting to the ungodly their destiny, or the signs to which these impious ones are recognized.
Ver. 29, 30. Ask everyone of them that go by the way; and ye will know that he understands this same. Because the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction, and he is brought to the day of wrath. [MORAL INTERPRETATION] 68. For often the patience of God bears for long with those, whom it already condemns to punishments foreknown; it suffers those to go on thriving, whom it sees still committing worse things. For whereas He sees to what pit of condemnation they are going on, He esteems to be as nothing to them, that the wicked multiply here things which must be abandoned. But he that is wedded to the glory of the present life, counts it great happiness to thrive here according to his wish, though he be driven hereafter to undergo eternal punishment. Therefore that man only sees it to be nothing for the wicked man to thrive, who has already removed the step of his heart from the love of the present world. Hence, in speaking of the after condemnation of the wicked man, it is rightly premised, Ask anyone of the wayfarers, and ye shall know that he understandeth these same things. For he is called a 'wayfarer,' who minds that the present life is to him a way and not a native land, who thinks it beneath him to fix his heart on the love of this passing state of being, who longs, not to continue in a transitory scene of things, but to reach the eternal world. For he that does not aim to be a wayfarer in this world, is far from setting at nought this world's good fortune, and when he sees those things which he himself covets abounding to others, he wonders. Hence the Prophet David, as he had already passed in heart from the love of the present world, in describing the glory of the wicked man, said; I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading like a green bay tree. [Ps. 37, 35. 36.] But because he did not submit his heart to this world, he justly looked down upon him, saying; I passed on, but, lo, he was not. For the wicked man would have been something in his esteem, if he had not himself passed on in the bent of his mind from this present scene. But this man, who to one not 'passing by' would have been something great, to one 'passing by' in mind, how little he was, was shewn; in that whilst everlasting retribution is thought on, it is seen how little present glory is. Hence Moses, when he was seeking the glory of heavenly contemplation, said, I will now…
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 21:27-31
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…
houses have vanished because of their sins: Job was echoing Bildad (8:22), Eliphaz (15:34), and Zophar (20:26).
Rashi on Job 21:29
Have you not asked etc. All these parables you are composing about me.
and their signs which they made known to you, you shall not make strange to yourselves by not paying attention to them, like (Gen. 42:7), “But he made himself a stranger (ויתנכר) to them.”
