What Does Job 15:13 Mean?
That you turn your breath against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
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
That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?THE KEY
The “spirit” turned against God is ruach, breath and animating force, and the verse traces that inward direction into the words coming out of the mouth.
THE MEANING
Your inward breath is already directed somewhere, and the words you release make that direction audible. When it is turned against God, the conflict does not remain abstract; it comes out through your mouth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this dissolves is that spoken opposition is detached from the inner self; the mouth gives outward form to the direction held within.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוּחַ
ruach
Moving air: breath, wind, and animating force.
English “spirit” can sound like an invisible compartment, but ruach is also the word for wind and breath. The verse reaches the living breath within you, then links its direction to speech leaving your mouth.
ALSO GROWS
ruachkha: Your breath, wind, or animating spirit.
רוּחֲךָ
This possessive form appears in the verse: the inward force being turned is the same ruach that can mean breath and wind.
ruachot: Winds or spirits.
רוּחוֹת
The plural form still names moving air and unseen animation with one word, preserving the range English splits into separate categories.
תָּשִׁיב
tashiv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Turn back, return.
“turn” in this verse is tashiv. The verb’s root carries return as well as turning, so direction is built into the action. The verse names that direction as “against God,” while the root holds the motion of turning.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To turn or return.
שׁוּב
The base verb makes turning a change of direction, which clarifies the movement described in the verse.
teshuvah: Turning or return.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun from the same root shows that turning can name a whole movement of return.
meshuvah: Turning away; backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
The same root can name a turning away, making the direction of the turn central to the verse’s force.
THE PATTERN
Speech gives outward form to the inward orientation and contents of a person.
Let the words of my mouth be received, and the murmur of my heart before your face. O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and curse. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.THE THREAD
The breath of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty keeps me alive.“Spirit” in both verses is ruach, the same word that also means breath and wind; Job 33:4 pairs it with the Almighty’s life-giving breath. This opens Job 15:13’s question: what happens when the breath that comes from God is turned against God and released as speech?
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