What Does Job 10:6 Mean?
That you seek out my crookedness, and search out my falling short.
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
That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?THE KEY
The word translated “sin” also carries the sense of a miss, so the verse’s scrutiny follows a particular failure.
THE MEANING
When you feel examined for what has gone crooked and what you have missed, this verse gives that pressure a voice. Inquiry asks after the crookedness, and searching follows the failure closely.
THE ROOT
חַטָּאתִי
ḥaṭṭāʾtî
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, err, or do wrong; to miss the mark.
“falling short” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾtî. The root lets you hear “sin” with the concrete shade of missing or erring. The verse places that failure under scrutiny as something that can be named.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss, err, or do wrong.
חָטָא
This verbal form makes the failure in the verse something that happens, rather than a name for the whole person.
ḥēṭʾ: A miss, fault, or sin.
חֵטְא
This related noun carries the same root into the specific thing being examined.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin; also an offering associated with sin.
חַטָּאת
The same word family links the missing with what addresses it in contexts involving an offering.
תִדְרֹשׁ
tidrosh
GROWS FROM
דרש
To seek out, inquire after, or require.
“seek out” in this verse is tidrosh. English “enquirest” can sound like a question; דרשׁ carries the force of seeking something out and, in some uses, requiring an account. The verse’s question is an active pursuit of the crookedness named.
ALSO GROWS
derishah: Inquiry or demand.
דְּרִישָׁה
This noun preserves the root’s sense of an inquiry that presses for an answer.
midrash: Inquiry, study, or exposition arising from inquiry.
מִדְרָשׁ
This branch shows the root extending from seeking into sustained interpretation.
תַחְפֹּשׂ
taḥpos
GROWS FROM
חפשׂ
To search out or investigate.
“searchest” in this verse is taḥpos. The second verb adds another form of pursuit after the inquiry. Together, the verbs make the failure the object of sustained examination.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāpaś: To search or search out.
חָפַשׂ
This is the base verb behind the verse’s act of searching.
ḥippuś: Search or investigation.
חִפּוּשׂ
This related noun makes the searching itself a thing that can be named.
meḥappes: One who searches.
מְחַפֵּשׂ
This branch names the one carrying out the pursuit described in the verse.
THE PATTERN
What is hidden within a person can be searched out and brought into view.
Probe me, O God, and perceive my heart; test me, and perceive my burning thoughts.I, the LORD, search the heart and test the kidneys, to give each one according to his way, according to the fruit of his deeds.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.THE THREAD
And the judges shall search well; and, behold, if the witness is a witness of lies, and has answered a lie against his brother;The Hebrew behind “make diligent inquisition” shares דרשׁ with Job’s “enquirest.” The shared root carries the force of thorough seeking, revealing how actively the question pursues what is there.
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