What Does Job 13:22 Mean?
Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you turn back to me.
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
Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.THE KEY
The second “answer” uses shuv, “turn/return,” picturing a reply as something turned back across the space between voices.
THE MEANING
You can hold both sides of the exchange at once: answer when called, and speak when you need a response. The verse gives your voice a place in the encounter, including the direct request that the other answer you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that this relationship has only one speaking direction: the verse places your answer to a call alongside your request for an answer.
THE ROOT
וַהֲשִׁיבֵנִי
wa-hashiveni
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Turn, return, bring back.
“turn back to me” in this verse is wa-hashiveni. The second “answer” comes from שׁוּב (shuv), “turn/return,” while the first comes from עָנָה (ʿanah), “respond.” Hebrew shifts roots where English repeats a word, picturing the reply as something turned back.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return, turning back; also a response.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun shows how a return can also be a reply, echoing Job’s request for an answer to come back.
yeshovev: He restores or brings back.
יְשׁוֹבֵב
The same root’s return can restore what has gone out of place, giving the requested answer the sense of a response that comes back into the exchange.
אֶעֱנֶה
eʿeneh
GROWS FROM
עָנָה
ʿanah
Answer, respond.
“I will answer” in this verse is eʿeneh. This is the first of the verse’s two different Hebrew answers: Job is ready to respond when called. Beside the second answer, formed from שׁוּב (shuv), the shift makes the exchange feel reciprocal rather than repetitive.
ALSO GROWS
maʿaneh: An answer or response.
מַעֲנֶה
The noun makes explicit that ʿanah can name the response itself, not only the act of replying.
yaʿaneh: He will answer or respond.
יַעֲנֶה
This verbal form carries the same act of answering that Job offers when he says, “I will answer.”
אֲדַבֵּר
adabber
GROWS FROM
דָּבַר
davar
Speak, declare.
The word translated “speak” shares its root with דָּבָר (davar), “word” and “matter.” Job’s speech is presented as a real matter offered into the exchange, with an answer invited in return.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
The shared root joins speech with the matter being spoken about.
dibber: He spoke or declared.
דִּבֵּר
This form keeps the verse’s focus on speech as an act that opens the possibility of response.
THE PATTERN
Encounter here works as reciprocal speech: either voice may begin, and the other side is invited to respond.
And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.THE THREAD
Shall he who contends with the Almighty straighten him? He who would reprove God, let him answer it.Job 13:22 uses עָנָה (ʿanah), “respond,” for the answer he is ready to give; Job 40:2 repeats that root in the challenge for the one who reproves God to answer. The repeated verb makes the invitation to dialogue the point under examination: who can actually answer?
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