What Does Job 1:3 Mean?
What he had gotten was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very great company of those who served, so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
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
His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.THE KEY
The word translated “substance” grows from the root “to acquire,” picturing Job’s abundance as a gathered store of living things.
THE MEANING
You see abundance described as concrete holdings: livestock, working teams, and a large household. Greatness here is measured by the scale of a whole living and working estate.
THE ROOT
מִקְנֵהוּ
miqnehu
GROWS FROM
קנה
q-n-h
To acquire, buy, or possess.
“what he had gotten” in this verse is miqnehu. “Substance” here is not an abstract fortune: the Hebrew word belongs to the family of acquiring and possessing, and specifically refers to livestock or property. The English rendering gathers Job’s abundance into one word, while the Hebrew brings its tangible holdings into view.
ALSO GROWS
qanah: To acquire or buy.
קָנָה
This verb shares the root behind Job’s “substance,” linking his estate to what has been acquired.
qoneh: One who possesses; a possessor.
קֹנֵה
Genesis uses this form for a possessor, showing the same root at work in the language of ownership.
גָּדוֹל
gadol
GROWS FROM
גדל
g-d-l
To grow or become great.
“greatest” in this verse is gadol. The verse’s final measure of Job is “great,” from a root that also means growing or becoming great. Paired with the long inventory, the word makes his standing visible through the scale of what fills his life.
ALSO GROWS
gadal: To grow or become great.
גָּדַל
This verb shares the root of “greatest,” adding the sense of increase to the verse’s scale of abundance.
migdal: Tower.
מִגְדָּל
A tower is something built up high; this branch shares the root’s sense of rising or growing in size.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes material abundance visible by naming what a person possesses and in what quantity.
And Abram was very heavy with cattle, with silver, and with gold.And he said to them, Watch, and guard yourselves against grasping, for a person's life does not lie in the overflow of what they hold.THE THREAD
And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, holder of heaven and earth.Job’s “substance” comes from קנה, the root of acquiring and possessing. Genesis uses its related form קֹנֵה for “possessor,” linking Job’s concrete estate with the same word family of possession.
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