What Does Job 14:22 Mean?
But upon him his flesh aches, and upon him his living soul mourns.
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 his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.THE KEY
The Hebrew places both the ache of the flesh and the mourning of the living self “upon him,” holding them as one person’s pain.
THE MEANING
The verse gives your suffering two honest names: the body aches, and the living self grieves. Both belong to one person, and neither diminishes the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that grief is only inward or that bodily pain is only physical; the verse holds both in one life.
THE ROOT
יִכְאָב
yik’av
GROWS FROM
כאב
to hurt, ache, or be in pain
“aches” in this verse is yik’av. The root כאב names bodily ache here, but Job 2:13 uses a word from the same root for the grief others see in Job. The language lets physical pain and visible grief touch the same field of suffering.
ALSO GROWS
ke’ev: pain, ache
כְּאֵב
This noun shares the root of “shall have pain,” showing the ache as part of the same word family.
mak’ov: pain, grief, sorrow
מַכְאוֹב
Job 2:13 uses this form where the KJV says Job’s “grief” is very great, linking the root to sorrow as well as bodily hurt.
נַפְשׁוֹ
nafsho
GROWS FROM
נפש
the living self, a person in the fullness of life
Nefesh names a living soul or person, not merely an invisible part within you. The verse sets the living self’s mourning beside the flesh’s ache, so sorrow belongs to the whole person.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: living soul, person, life
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the noun in the verse; it names the living one who mourns.
naphash: to be refreshed, to rest
נָפַשׁ
This verb from the same root appears in Exodus 23:12; its connection to rest makes the living self’s weariness and grief more tangible.
THE PATTERN
Suffering reaches through the whole living person, felt in the body and inwardly.
For my life runs out with grief, and my years in groaning; my strength stumbles in my crookedness, and my bones waste away.For when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest; we were pressed on every side; outside were fights, inside were fears.THE THREAD
So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.Job 14:22 uses יִכְאָב (yik’av, “will ache”), from כאב (ka’av, “to hurt or be in pain”). Job 2:13 uses מַכְאוֹב (mak’ov, “pain, grief”) from the same root, letting the verse name what others see as grief with the same word family as Job’s ache.
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