What Does Job 13:7 Mean?
Will you speak crookedness for God, and speak deceit for him?
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
Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?THE KEY
Saying something is “for God” does not make it true; the verse tests the truthfulness of the defense itself.
THE MEANING
The question meets any moment when God’s character is invoked to excuse words that distort what is true. Speech offered on God’s behalf can still be unjust and deceptive. A claimed purpose does not change what the words are doing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a false claim becomes righteous when it is made in God’s defense.
THE ROOT
רְמִיָּה
remiyyāh
GROWS FROM
רמה
r-m-h
to deceive or act treacherously
“speak deceit” in this verse is remiyyāh. The word carries deception as an active way of dealing, not merely an incorrect statement. Beside “wickedly,” it exposes both the injustice in the speech and the deception by which it is carried.
ALSO GROWS
rāmāh: to deceive or deal treacherously
רָמָה
The verb shows deceit as an act, the work being done through the speech.
mirmāh: deceit or fraud
מִרְמָה
This related noun makes clear that the speech’s method is itself deceptive.
עַוְלָה
ʿawlāh
GROWS FROM
עול
ʿ-w-l
to act unjustly, twisting what is right
“crookedness” in this verse is ʿawlāh. The Hebrew word points to injustice, not just an offensive tone. Paired with deceit, it describes speech that both bends what is right and conceals that bending behind God’s name.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāwal: to act unjustly
עָוַל
The verb frames the wrong as something the speech does.
ʿāwēl: unjust or one who acts unjustly
עָוֵל
This related form connects the unjust act with the character of the one acting.
THE PATTERN
Speech that claims God’s authority remains accountable to truth and cannot use its purpose to excuse deception.
And Micaiah said, As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak.Thus says the LORD of hosts, Do not hear and respond to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they make you vapor. They speak a sight of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.But we have cast off the hidden things of shame, and we do not walk in cunning, nor handle the word of God with a snare; but by making the truth visible, we place ourselves before every person's conscience, before the face of God.THE THREAD
Your tongue plans ruin, like a sharp razor, goading deceit.“Deceitfully” translates the same Hebrew word, רְמִיָּה (remiyyāh), found in Job 13:7. The razor image reveals what that deceit does: speech can cut while presenting itself as serving God.
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