What Does Job 11:6 Mean?
And that he would show you the hidden things of wisdom, for its folds are double to what is sound. Know, then, that God takes from you less than your crookedness deserves.
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 that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.THE KEY
The verse invokes hidden wisdom to make a severe claim: God exacts less from you than your crookedness deserves.
THE MEANING
The verse’s voice says wisdom holds hidden depths beyond what you presently see, then claims God exacts from you less than your crookedness deserves. It casts the reader’s suffering as less than the consequence their crookedness warrants.
THE ROOT
תַּעֲלֻמוֹת
taʿalumot
GROWS FROM
עלם
To hide, conceal, or be hidden.
“hidden things” in this verse is taʿalumot. The verse names wisdom through what is concealed, not only through what is already understood. Its hidden depths become the ground for the speaker’s severe claim about what you deserve.
ALSO GROWS
neʿlam: Hidden, concealed.
נֶעְלָם
This form from עלם names what remains hidden, echoing the secrets of wisdom in the verse.
heʿlim: He hid, concealed.
הֶעְלִים
This form names the act of concealing; the verse speaks of hidden things being shown.
כִּפְלַיִם
kiflayim
GROWS FROM
כפל
To fold or double.
“its folds are double” in this verse is kiflayim. The Hebrew describes wisdom as doubled in relation to what is visible. The image gives the verse’s claim a sense of depth folded beyond the measure already seen.
ALSO GROWS
kāphal: To double or fold.
כָּפַל
The verb carries the same action of doubling expressed by the verse’s description of wisdom.
kefel: A double portion or doubling.
כֶּפֶל
This noun keeps the root’s sense of a measure multiplied or folded over.
חָכְמָה
ḥokhmah
GROWS FROM
חכם
To be wise or skillful; to act with discernment.
“wisdom” in this verse is ḥokhmah. חָכְמָה is more than a store of information: it carries the sense of skilled discernment. The verse presents that discernment as having hidden dimensions beyond what the reader presently sees.
ALSO GROWS
ḥākām: A wise or skillful person.
חָכָם
This form names a person who embodies the discernment carried by חָכְמָה.
ḥakhamim: Wise or skillful people.
חֲכָמִים
The plural extends the same root from wisdom as a quality to those who exercise it.
THE PATTERN
Divine wisdom exceeds human sight, so confident judgments about what another deserves can be mistaken.
And it was so, after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, The burning of my anger is against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken to me the steady thing, as my servant Job has.Such perceiving is too wonderful for me; it is high, and I cannot reach it.O the depth of the riches of both wisdom and knowledge of God! How beyond searching out are his judgments, and how beyond tracking are his ways!THE THREAD
You set our crookedness before you, our hidden things into the light of your face.Job’s תַּעֲלֻמוֹת (taʿalumot, hidden things) and Psalm 90:8’s עֲלֻמֵנוּ (ʿalumenu, our hidden things) share the root עלם, meaning to hide or be hidden. The Psalm turns what is concealed toward exposure: secret things stand in the light of God’s face.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us