a head person (of any rank or class) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
refrained
עָצְר֣וּ'a.tze.Ru
H6113
to inclose · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
talking
בְמִלִּ֑יםve.mi.Lim
H4405
a word · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
laid
יָשִׂ֥ימוּya.Si.mu
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
hand
וְ֝כַ֗ףve.Khaf
H3709
the hollow hand or palm (so of the paw of an animal · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
mouth
לְפִיהֶֽםle.fi.Hem
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular 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
Job 21:5 Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Proverbs 10:19 In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.
Proverbs 30:32 If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.
James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
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…
Job 4:2 If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?
Job 7:11 Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 29:7-17
We have here Job in a post of honour and power. Though he had comfort enough in his own house, yet he did not confine himself to that. We are not born for ourselves, but for the public. When any business was to be done in the gate, the place of judgment, Job went out to it through the city (Job 29:7), not in an affectation of pomp, but in an affection to justice. Observe, Judgment was administered in the gate, in the street, in the places of concourse, to which every man might have a free access, that every one who would might be a witness to all that was said and done, and that when judgment was given against the guilty others might hear and fear. Job being a prince, a judge, a magistrate,…
(Job 4:2; see on Job 21:5).
Refrained talking--stopped in the middle of their speech.
John Gill on Job 29:9
The princes refrained talking,.... Who were in court before Job came in, and were either talking with one another about indifferent matters, or were giving their opinion in a case before them; but no sooner did Job make his appearance, but they left off talking, and would not proceed any further; they laid a restraint upon their words, and curbed themselves from speaking any more till they had heard his opinion:
and laid their hand on their mouth; as a token of silence, Judges 18:19.
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 29:7-10
7 When I went forth to the gate of the city,
Prepared my seat in the market,
8 Then the young men hid themselves as soon as they saw me,
And the aged rose up, remained standing.
9 Princes refrained from speaking,
And laid their hand on their mouth.
10 The voice of the nobles was hidden,
And their tongue clave to their palate.
When he left the bounds of his domain, and came into the city, he was everywhere received with the profoundest respect. From the facts of the case, it is inadmissible to translate quum egrederer portam after Gen 34:24, comp. infra, Job 31:34, for the district where Job dwelt is to be thought of as being without a gate. True, he did not dwell with his family in tents, i.…
The Church Fathers
"And the mighty ceased to speak," those who availed themselves of vain science.
The princes ceased to speak, and laid the finger on the mouth. The rulers held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to their throat. Who else in this place can be understood as leaders or princes, but the framers of heretical evil? Concerning whom it is said by the Psalmist, Strife was poured out upon their princes, and they led them aside in the pathless place, and not in the way. For these identical persons, while they are not afraid to interpret the dispensation of God in a wrong sense, assuredly draw the common herds subject to them not into that way which is 'Christ,' but into 'a pathless place:' over whom 'strife also is lightly said to be poured out,' because by their statements they contradict mutually themselves. For Arius in receiving three Persons in the Divine Nature believed three Gods as well. Contrary to whom Sabellius taking up one God believed there was one Person. Between whom Holy Church unswervingly holding the right pathway of her preaching both in proclaiming one God, asserts against Sabellius three Persons, and in asserting three Persons, confesses against Arius one God. Again, because in sacred Revelation Manichaeus found virginity to be commended, he condemned marriage. But on the other hand Jovinian, because he knew marriages to be allowed, despised the pureness of virginity. Whence it takes place that, heretics being always at cross purposes by a wrong apprehension, reciprocally their wickedness is at once in accordance with itself in sin, and at variance with itself in opinion. But on the other hand Holy Church midway between the disputes of either side moves with composed peace, and knows so to receive the higher good, that she also knows to venerate the lower, so that she should neither equal the highest to the lowest, nor again despise the lowest whilst she venerates the highest. And so now the rulers of heretical multitudes considering well the authority of Holy Church cease to speak, and as it were 'put the finger on their mouth,' whilst with false complaints they signify that they are restrained not by the reasoning of the voice but by the hand of power. 'The rulers hold their peace,' because those same persons who endeavour to draw after them the people going wrong, that they should not now dare to utter what is wrong, are checked at once by the weight of authority and the efficacy of reason. Whose 'tongue cleaveth to…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
