What Does Job 14:21 Mean?
His sons are given weight, and he does not know; they shrink, and he does not tell them apart.
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
His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.THE KEY
His sons become weighty or diminished, but their father’s bond to them cannot keep him aware of either change.
THE MEANING
A person’s children may rise into honor or be brought low while that person remains unaware. The verse speaks to the hard limit death places on a parent’s access to the lives that continue.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being a parent guarantees continuing awareness of a child’s life.
THE ROOT
יִכְבְּדוּ
yikhbedu
GROWS FROM
כבד
To be heavy or weighty; by extension, to carry significance or honor.
“are given weight” in this verse is yikhbedu. English “honour” can sound like praise or approval; its Hebrew root carries the sense of weight and consequence. The sons become weighty while their father has no knowledge of it, so distinction does not guarantee a witness.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: weight, honor, glory
כָּבוֹד
This branch keeps the idea of weight inside the language of honor and glory.
kaved: heavy
כָּבֵד
The same root describes literal heaviness, letting “come to honour” also be heard as becoming weighty.
וְיִצְעֲרוּ
veyits'aru
GROWS FROM
צער
To be small, reduced, or diminished; related forms also express distress.
“brought low” in this verse is veyits'aru. The line pairs weight with smallness: the sons become weighty, then become small or diminished. Honor and abasement appear as opposite measures of stature, and both remain hidden from their father.
ALSO GROWS
tsa'ir: small, young
צָעִיר
This branch shows the root’s sense of littleness, echoing the sons’ diminished state.
tsa'ar: distress, sorrow
צַעַר
The root’s connection with distress gives the state of being brought low a painful edge.
יֵדָע
yēdaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or become aware of; in some contexts, to know through encounter.
“does not know” in this verse is yēdaʿ. The verse denies the father awareness of his sons’ condition. It pairs “knoweth it not” with a second verb for discerning, closing off both recognition and perception.
ALSO GROWS
yada: to know, recognize, become acquainted with
יָדַע
The verse’s verb is an inflected form of this root, locating the absence in personal awareness.
daʿat: knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun shows the root can name the state of knowing; Job says that access is absent.
THE PATTERN
A person’s knowledge and reach do not extend to every life that continues beyond them.
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all; there are no more wages for them, and their memory is forgotten.His breath goes out; he returns to his ground. In that very day his plans lose their way.Jesus said to him, "If I will that he stay until I come, what is that to you? As for you, follow me."THE THREAD
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all; there are no more wages for them, and their memory is forgotten.Ecclesiastes uses the same Hebrew root ידע (yādaʿ, “know”) as Job’s “he knoweth it not.” Ecclesiastes states the boundary broadly; Job gives it a parent’s face, naming what continues to happen to his children beyond his awareness.
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