What Does Job 1:1 Mean?
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was whole and straight, one in awe of God, and one who turned aside from harm.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.THE KEY
The verse’s “perfect” is תָּם (tam, whole): integrity is a whole life whose direction stays straight, marked by awe toward God and turning from evil.
THE MEANING
Wholeness is not an unreachable score; it is a life with a straight direction, marked by awe toward God and turning away from evil. The verse lets you see integrity as congruence between what you hold in awe and what you refuse to make room for.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that integrity means never having a flaw: תָּם (tam, whole) names completeness, while the verse shows that wholeness through uprightness, awe, and turning from evil.
THE ROOT
תָּם
tam
GROWS FROM
תמם
t-m-m
To be complete or come to completion; wholeness.
English “perfect” can sound like faultlessness, while תָּם (tam, whole) points to integrity. Beside יָשָׁר (yashar, straight), it describes wholeness with a direct, unbent direction.
ALSO GROWS
tamim: Whole, complete, blameless.
תָּמִים
This related form shows the same idea of completeness in another word often rendered “perfect.”
tom: Integrity, completeness.
תֹּם
This noun makes the link between being whole and living with integrity explicit.
יָשָׁר
yashar
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
To be straight, level, or right.
The verse sets “straight” beside “whole,” giving integrity a direction you can recognize. Wholeness here is not an abstract ideal; it has a directness to it.
ALSO GROWS
yosher: Straightness, uprightness.
יֹשֶׁר
This form names the quality that makes the verse’s idea of wholeness visible in conduct.
mesharim: Equity, uprightness, levelness.
מֵישָׁרִים
Its sense of levelness echoes the straight and undistorted direction expressed by “upright.”
יְרֵא
yere
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“in awe of God” in this verse is yere. When God is the one feared, ירא (yare, to stand in awe) carries reverence, not only alarm. The verse pairs that awe with turning from evil, so reverence appears as a lived orientation.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Awe, reverence, fear.
יִרְאָה
This noun holds the inward posture expressed by “feared God.”
nora: Awe-inspiring, fearsome.
נוֹרָא
This related form shows how the root can describe what evokes awe as well as the response of awe.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness takes shape as an undivided orientation toward God that is visible in straight conduct.
He who walks whole, works alignment, and speaks truth in his heart.Do not be wise in your own eyes. Be in awe of the LORD, and turn aside from harm.But let the bearing up under have its complete work, that you may be complete and entire, with nothing left behind.THE THREAD
You shall be whole with the LORD your God.Job is called תָּם (tam, whole), and Deuteronomy uses תָּמִים (tamim, complete) from the same root תמם (t-m-m, to be complete). The shared seed opens “perfect with the LORD thy God” as integrity in relation, not a demand for a flawless record.
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