perhaps properly · verb, piel perfect, 1st person common singular
answer
אֶֽעֱנֶ֑ה'e.'e.Neh
H6030
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
twice
וּ֝שְׁתַּ֗יִםu.she.Ta.yim
H8147
two · conjunction + cardinal number, feminine dual absolute
further
אוֹסִֽיף'o.Sif
H3254
to add or augment (often adverbial · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
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 33:14 For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
Psalms 62:11 God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.
Job 9:3 If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.
Job 9:15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.
2 Kings 6:10 And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice.
Job 34:31-32 Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more:
Jeremiah 31:18-19 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn…
Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the worl…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 40:1-5
Here is, I. A humbling challenge which God gave to Job. After he had heaped up many hard questions upon him, to show him, by his manifest ignorance in the works of nature, what an incompetent judge he was of the methods and designs of Providence, he clenches the nail with one demand more, which stands by itself here as the application of the whole. It should seem, God paused awhile, as Elihu had done, to give Job time to say what he had to say, or to think of what God had said; but Job was in such confusion that he remained silent, and therefore God here put him upon replying, Job 40:1, Job 40:2. This is not said to be spoken out of the whirlwind, as before; and therefore some think God said…
Once . . . twice--oftentimes, more than once (Job 33:14, compare with Job 33:29; Psa 62:11):
I have spoken--namely, against God.
not answer--not plead against Thee.
Adam Clarke on Job 40:5
Once have I spoken - See on Job 42:3 (note), etc.
I will proceed no farther - I shall attempt to justify myself no longer; I have spoken repeatedly; and am confounded at my want of respect for my Maker, and at the high thoughts which I have entertained of my own righteousness. All is impurity in the presence of thy Majesty.
John Gill on Job 40:5
Once have I spoken; but I will not answer,.... Some think this refers to what he had just now said of his vileness, he had owned that, and that was all he had to say, or would say, he would give no other answer; Jarchi says, some suppose he has respect to his words in Job 9:22;
yea, twice; but I will proceed no further; the meaning seems to be, that he who had once and again, or very often, at least in some instances, spoken very imprudently and indecently, for the future would take care not to speak in such a manner: for this confession was not quite free and full; and therefore the Lord takes him in hand again, to bring him to make a more full and ingenuous one, as he does in Job 42:1.
The Church Fathers
At a meeting of the hermits in Cellia, Evagrius made a speech. Then the priest there said, 'Evagrius, we know that if you were in your own country, perhaps you would already be a bishop, ruling over many. Here you are only a pilgrim.' Evagrius was pierced to the heart at these words, but he bent his head calmly and without haste and looked at the ground, then wrote in the dust with his finger, and said, 'Truly, brothers, that is right. But, as it is written, "I have spoken once and I will no more answer" (Job 40:5).'
One thing have I spoken, which I would I had not said; and another, to which I will add no further. 3. If we examine the former words of blessed Job, we find that he has said nothing wickedly. But if we distort his words, which were uttered with truth and freedom, into a sort of sin of pride, there will no longer be two only; because there will be many. But since our speaking is the laying open to men our secret meaning in words; but our speaking to the ears of God is the exhibiting the motion of our mind even by an expressive action; blessed Job, on weighing himself by the balance of most accurate examination, confesses that he had a second time offended in his speech. For to 'say one thing' unlawfully, is to do things worthy of the scourge, to 'say another' is to murmur too at the scourge. He therefore, who was preferred above men in all his doings before the reproof of the Lord, rising higher by this very reproof, acknowledged that he was in the first place far from right in his conduct, and afterwards far from patient under the rod. Whence he reproves himself, saying, One thing have I spoken, which I would I had not said; and another, to which I will add no further. As if he said, I believed myself to be righteous indeed among men, but, as Thou wert speaking, I found myself to be both wicked before the scourges, and stubborn after the scourges. To which I will add no further, because now, the more accurately I understand Thee speaking, the more humbly I search out myself. 4. And because blessed Job typifies Holy Church, these words of his can be applied to all the Elect, who knowing the Lord, feel that they have offended in one and another point, because they understand that they have sinned either in thought and deed, or in neglecting the love of God and their neighbour. To which they promise to add no further, because through the grace of conversion, they take care to purge away daily by penitence even their former deeds. And yet blessed Job, by convicting himself in his penitence of two points, plainly shews, that every sinner ought in his penitence to have two groans, because, in truth, he has both not done the good which he ought, and has done the evil which he ought not. For hence is it that it is said by Moses, of him who took an oath to do any thing, either evil or good, and has transgressed it through forgetfulness, Let him offer a she lamb…
Dictionary and topics
Conviction · OF SIN — OF SIN
Humility · EXEMPLIFIED — EXEMPLIFIED
Job · .Submission of, to God — .Submission of, to God
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 40:4-5
4 Behold, I am too mean: what shall I answer Thee?
I lay my hand upon my mouth.
5 Once have I spoken, and will not begin again;
And twice - I will do it no more.
He is small, i.e., not equal to the task imposed, therefore he keeps his mouth firmly closed (comp. Job 21:5; Job 29:9), for whatever he might say would still not be to the point. Once he has dared to criticise God's doings; a second time (שׁתּים = שׁנית, Ges. 120, 5) he ventures it no more, for God's wondrous wisdom and all-careful love dazzle him, and he gladly bows.
But how? Is not the divine speech altogether different from what one ought to expect? One expects to hear from the mouth of Jehovah something unheard of in the previo…
Job had nothing more to say; he had no further charges against God, nor would he make a rebuttal.
Rashi on Job 40:5
I said one [thing i.e., I have spoken little and I will add no more. Others explain: I said one What I said (above 9:22), “[It is all one; therefore I said,] ‘He destroys both the innocent and the wicked,’” I will no longer answer.
and two What I said (above 13:20), “Do not do two things to me,” I will not add.
