What Does Job 12:16 Mean?
With him are strength and wisdom; the one who strays and the one who makes others wander are his.
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
With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his.THE KEY
Hebrew gives the one who strays and the one who leads astray neighboring but distinct words, then places both within the same strength and wisdom.
THE MEANING
The strength and sound wisdom that hold reality are with God, and both the person wandering into error and the person steering others there remain within that reach. Neither confusion nor manipulation lies outside this governance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being misled means being abandoned, or that misleading others creates a realm beyond God’s reach.
THE ROOT
שֹׁגֵג
shogeg
GROWS FROM
שגג
To err or go astray, especially without intending it.
“strays” in this verse is shogeg. The word translated deceived can carry the sense of one who has gone astray or erred. The verse pairs it with מַשְׁגֶּה (mashgeh), the one who causes another to stray, from the distinct root שגה; their shared ש־ג sound links the two actions without making them the same root.
ALSO GROWS
shagag: To err inadvertently.
שָׁגַג
This verb names the act behind the person described as שֹׁגֵג.
shegagah: An inadvertent error.
שְׁגָגָה
This noun shows the same root naming the error itself, as well as the person who falls into it.
מַשְׁגֶּה
mashgeh
GROWS FROM
שגה
To wander or go astray; in a causative form, to lead someone astray.
“makes others wander” in this verse is mashgeh. Here the word names the one who causes another to wander. The nearby שֹׁגֵג (shogeg) names one who strays; the verse holds the two roles together while keeping their Hebrew roots distinct.
ALSO GROWS
shagah: To err or wander astray.
שָׁגָה
The verb supplies the action that the causative form directs toward another.
shogeh: One who errs or wanders.
שׁוֹגֶה
This form names the one straying, alongside the causative form for the one leading astray.
עֹז
oz
GROWS FROM
עזז
To be strong or prevail.
Strength here is something present with God, beside תּוּשִׁיָּה (tushiyyah, sound wisdom). The verse places power and sound judgment together as the ground in which both kinds of human error remain held.
ALSO GROWS
azuz: Mighty or strong.
עָזוּז
This related form makes the force of עֹז audible as might.
uzzi: My strength.
עֻזִּי
This possessive form uses the same root to name strength as a source one relies on.
THE PATTERN
God’s rule encompasses both the conditions that seem opposed and the full field of human disobedience.
I shape the light and create the darkness; I make wholeness and create harm. I, the LORD, do all these things.For God has shut all of them together into refusal to hear and respond, so that he may show faithful love to all.The LORD works all things toward his answer, and even the wicked for the day of harm.THE THREAD
Whoever causes the straight ones to wander on an evil way, he himself shall fall into his own pit, but the whole ones shall possess good.The Hebrew word translated causeth to go astray comes from שגה, the same root as Job’s מַשְׁגֶּה, the deceiver. Proverbs shows the consequence of leading others astray; Job widens the frame to include both the one who strays and the one who misleads within God’s strength and wisdom.
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