Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Job 21:6 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 6. 6Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Job 21:6 closes the thought unit with the words “Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.” Job states “Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh” as one poetic claim in Job Asks the Friends to Listen Before Mocking.
Read It With
- Job 21:1–21:6
Read Job 21:6 with 21:1–21:6. Read alone, “Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Job asks for attentive hearing as their comfort, permits mockery only after he speaks, and says the subject terrifies his own body.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Job asks for actual listening before overturning Zophar's formula with observed cases in which wicked people prosper and die without immediate catastrophe. Within that relationship, Job 21:6 closes the thought unit through “Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.”
Read Job 21:1–6 together
Why these verses belong together: Job 21:1–21:6 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained speech movement: “Job Asks the Friends to Listen Before Mocking.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.
Verse 1. 1 But Job answered and said,
Verse 2. 2 Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations.
Verse 3. 3 Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.
Verse 4. 4 As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?
Verse 5. 5 Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
Verse 6. 6 Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
What Remains True
Job asks for attentive hearing as their comfort, permits mockery only after he speaks, and says the subject terrifies his own body. Honest lament, grief, protest, and need can remain inside sustained relationship without being silenced by a demand for quick explanations. Job 21:6 carries that bounded truth through “Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.”
How It Can Shape Life
- Make room for the speech and emotion preserved in Job 21:1–21:6; listen before explaining, do not coerce closure or silence protest, and pair companionship with the practical care the situation requires. Preserve this unit-specific boundary in the action: Listening is not agreement, but it must precede confident correction; bodily trembling does not permit diagnosis from the text. The verse-specific evidence to retain is “Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.”
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Job 21:1–21:6 — Job Asks the Friends to Listen Before MockingSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 21:1–21:6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 21:1–21:6
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 21:1–21:6.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 21:1–21:6
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗