What Does Job 15:1 Mean?
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, and said,
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
Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,THE KEY
The Hebrew makes Eliphaz a responder before the next words arrive: his speech enters an exchange already in motion.
THE MEANING
Every answer you give enters a conversation already underway. This verse holds the pause between being addressed and replying; what follows reveals what kind of answer meets the moment.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעַן
wayyaʿan
GROWS FROM
ענה
to answer, respond
The English “answered” can sound like a cue for speech; ענה names a reply turned toward something already spoken. The verse begins with Eliphaz’s place in an exchange, while the words that follow will show what kind of answer he gives.
ALSO GROWS
wayyaʿan: A verb form meaning to answer or respond.
וַיַּעַן
Here, the verb frames Eliphaz’s speech as a response rather than a beginning.
maʿaneh: A noun for an answer or response.
מַעֲנֶה
In Proverbs 15:1, this same-root noun shows that a response can turn an exchange toward calm or stir it toward anger.
THE PATTERN
An answer receives prior speech, and its manner can turn what follows.
Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, Here I am.A soft answer turns away the burning, but words of pain stir up the nostrils.But set apart the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a word about the hope within you, with gentleness and fear.THE THREAD
A soft answer turns away the burning, but words of pain stir up the nostrils.Proverbs uses מַעֲנֶה (maʿaneh), meaning “answer” or “response,” from the same root ענה (ʿanah) as Job’s “answered.” It reveals that a reply has direction: soft words turn wrath away, while grievous ones stir it up.
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