What Does Job 1:4 Mean?
And his sons went and drank in their houses, each one on his day, and sent and called for their three sisters, to eat and to drink with them.
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
And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “feasted” grows from the same root as “to drink,” so the drink is already inside the name of the feast.
THE MEANING
Each brother holds a feast in his own house on his appointed day, then sends for his sisters to eat and drink with him. The invitation carries the meal beyond one household, giving family belonging a shared, tangible form.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁתֶּה
mishteh
GROWS FROM
שתה
to drink
“drank” in this verse is mishteh. The word translated “feasted” means a drinking-feast and comes from the same root as the later “to drink.” English separates the celebration from the drinking, while Hebrew names the feast through it.
ALSO GROWS
shatah: to drink
שָׁתָה
This is the verb behind “to drink” later in the verse, linking the feast’s name to the action at the table.
shetiyah: drinking
שְׁתִיָּה
This noun from the same root keeps the focus on drinking as part of the shared gathering.
וְשָׁלְחוּ
ve-shalḥu
GROWS FROM
שלח
to send forth, release
“sent” in this verse is ve-shalḥu. Before the sisters share the meal, the brothers send for them. The root opens the feast outward: the gathering includes an act of reaching beyond the home.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: messenger, delegate
שָׁלִיחַ
A messenger carries something sent outward, echoing how the brothers extend their gathering to their sisters.
shulchan: table
שֻׁלְחָן
The table is provision extended to those invited; here, the brothers’ sending makes room for their sisters at the meal.
Shiloach: sent water or channel
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves the sense of what is sent forth, like the invitation that carries the feast beyond each brother’s house.
THE PATTERN
A shared meal makes belonging visible by bringing others into its food and joy.
And he took curds and milk, and the son of the herd which he had made, and set it before them, and stood beside them under the tree, and they ate.And bring the grain-fed calf and slaughter it, and let us eat and be glad.And they, holding fast day by day with one passion in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, took their food with gladness and singleness of heart.THE THREAD
Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing stands ready, for this day is set apart to our Lord. Do not ache, for the joy of the LORD is your stronghold.Nehemiah’s verse joins the same roots found here: it speaks of drinking and sending portions outward. The feast expands when what is shared reaches beyond the table to others.
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