What Does Job 14:10 Mean?
But the strong man dies and grows weak; yes, man expires, and where is he?
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
But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?THE KEY
The Hebrew names one person first as a gever, a strength-bearing man, then as adam, a ground-being: death strips strength away and leaves the question of where that person has gone.
THE MEANING
This verse holds the reader inside mortality without softening it: the strong person weakens, expires, and is no longer found where life once made them visible. Its question, “where is he?”, stays open, carrying the full weight of absence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that strength can secure a person against death or make their presence permanent.
THE ROOT
גֶּבֶר
gever
GROWS FROM
גבר
To be strong or prevail.
“strong man” in this verse is gever. English repeats “man,” but the Hebrew begins with gever, a strength-bearing person. That word’s force then fades as the verse names the person again as adam.
ALSO GROWS
gābar: To be strong or prevail.
גָּבַר
The verbal seed makes the strength carried by gever audible.
gibbôr: A mighty one or strong man.
גִּבּוֹר
This branch shows the same root concentrated in a person known for might.
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
Human being, with a biblical wordplay linking adam to the ground, adamah.
The second “man” is not the same Hebrew word as the first. Adam carries a connection to the ground, so the verse’s closing question follows a human life whose name already holds a trace of earthly origin.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: Ground, soil.
אֲדָמָה
This is the ground-word linked with adam, opening the human name toward its earthly source.
adom: Red.
אָדֹם
This word shares the consonants אדם; alongside adamah, it shows how the same consonant family carries earthy associations.
וַיֶּחֱלָשׁ
vayyeḥĕlaš
GROWS FROM
חלש
To grow weak or weaken.
“grows weak” in this verse is vayyeḥĕlaš. The word translated “wasteth away” places weakness between the strong gever and the one who expires. The Hebrew sequence shows strength giving way before the question of absence arrives.
ALSO GROWS
ḥālaš: To grow weak or weaken.
חָלַשׁ
This verb expresses the loss of strength happening to the person in the verse.
ḥallāš: Weak, feeble.
חַלָּשׁ
The related adjective names the resulting condition, holding both the weakening and its state within the same family.
THE PATTERN
Human strength is temporary: the living weaken, return to dust, and pass from view.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you turn back to the ground, for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall turn back.All go to one place; all come from the dust, and all turn back to the dust.You do not know what tomorrow holds. For what is your life? You are a mist, showing itself for a little while, and then made unseen.THE THREAD
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you turn back to the ground, for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall turn back.Job’s second “man” is אָדָם (adam), linked with אֲדָמָה (adamah), ground. Genesis 3:19 makes that connection explicit, turning Job’s “where is he?” toward the human being’s return to the ground from which life came.
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