What Does Job 13:6 Mean?
Hear now my argument, and incline your ear to the contention of my lips.
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
Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.THE KEY
This verse treats hearing as full attention to a disputed case, not merely the reception of sound.
THE MEANING
When your case meets resistance, this verse names its need plainly: your reasoning and the words carrying it both need to be heard. Hearing here is active attention, not sound passing through.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a voice in conflict has already lost its claim to be heard.
THE ROOT
תוֹכַחְתִּי
tochachti
GROWS FROM
יכח
yakach
to prove, decide, or reprove; to argue a case
“argument” in this verse is tochachti. The word behind “reasoning” belongs to the language of proving, deciding, and reproof. Job’s reasoning is a case that may expose or correct, and the verse asks that it receive a hearing.
ALSO GROWS
hokhiach: to prove or reprove
הוֹכִיחַ
This branch shows that reasoning can bring something forward to be examined and can also correct what is mistaken.
tokhechah: reproof, correction, or argument
תּוֹכֵחָה
This noun carries the corrective edge within the reasoning Job asks others to hear.
רִיב
riv
GROWS FROM
ריב
riv
to contend or bring a dispute forward
“contention” in this verse is riv. The word rendered “pleadings” carries the force of a dispute or case submitted for hearing. Paired with “reasoning,” it presents speech as a claim to examine, not just words to notice.
ALSO GROWS
yariv: he contends or pleads a case
יָרִיב
This verbal branch keeps the sense of an active dispute within Job’s request.
merivah: strife or contention
מְרִיבָה
This branch shows the friction that can surround the case being spoken.
שְׂפָתַי
sefatai
GROWS FROM
שפה
safah
lip; by extension, language or an edge
The Hebrew word for “lips” also carries the senses of language and an edge or boundary. Here, the lips mark the point where the case takes spoken form and becomes available to its hearers.
ALSO GROWS
safah: lip or language
שָׂפָה
The same word can name both the mouth’s edge and the speech formed there.
sefat hayam: the shore or edge of the sea
שְׂפַת הַיָּם
Hebrew uses this same word for a boundary, linking the lips that voice the case with an edge from which something passes outward.
THE PATTERN
A fair judgment begins by giving the disputed voice a full hearing before answering it.
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to swell.And I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Hear and respond between your brothers, and judge in alignment between each man and his brother, and the sojourner who is with him.THE THREAD
The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.The verb translated “heareth” shares the root שמע (shama) with Job’s “Hear.” That shared root links Job’s request to the warning against answering before a case has been received.
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