What Does Job 18:21 Mean?
Surely these are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of the one who does not perceive God.
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
Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.THE KEY
The verse turns not knowing God from an information gap into a place a person inhabits.
THE MEANING
The verse presents injustice as a dwelling and not knowing God as the address attached to it. “Know” reaches beyond facts to recognition through encounter, so the line describes a lived relationship, not simply missing information. Its claim is severe: the unjust and the one who does not know God occupy the same place.
THE ROOT
יָדַע
yādaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“perceive” in this verse is yādaʿ. The root carries knowing as recognition through encounter, not only possession of facts. Here, not knowing God describes an absent relationship, giving the verse’s “place” a relational meaning.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, knowing
דַּעַת
This related form appears in Job 21:14 as “knowledge,” linking knowing with a person’s orientation toward God’s ways.
yōdēaʿ: One who knows or perceives
יֹדֵעַ
The participle names a person by the act of knowing, echoing the verse’s description of someone by their relation to God.
מִשְׁכְּנוֹת
mishkenot
GROWS FROM
שכן
sh-k-n
To settle or dwell.
“dwellings” in this verse is mishkenot. The word for dwelling grows from a verb meaning to settle or dwell. That root makes injustice an inhabited condition in the verse, rather than only a label attached to a person.
ALSO GROWS
shākhan: To settle, dwell
שָׁכַן
The verb beneath “dwellings” gives the verse its image of a condition someone inhabits.
shākhen: Neighbor, one who dwells nearby
שָׁכֵן
This branch carries dwelling into proximity, reinforcing the verse’s picture of a place defined by who inhabits it.
עַוָּל
ʿavval
GROWS FROM
עול
ʿ-w-l
To act wrongfully or deal unjustly.
The Hebrew word rendered “wicked” carries the shade of injustice and wrongful dealing. It gives the verse’s moral category a concrete shape: a life marked by what is unjust.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvel: Injustice, wrong
עָוֶל
This noun names the wrongness contained in the description of the unjust person’s dwelling.
ʿavlāh: Wrongdoing, injustice
עַוְלָה
This related form keeps the focus on unjust action beneath the broader English label “wicked.”
THE PATTERN
Knowing God is a lived relation that shapes a person’s orientation, appearing as refusal, trust, or life.
They say to God, Turn aside from us; we do not delight in the knowledge of your ways.Those who know your name lean their weight on you, for you do not let go of those who seek you, LORD.And this is the life of the ages, that they might know you, the only God of truth, and Jesus, the Anointed One, whom you have sent.THE THREAD
They say to God, Turn aside from us; we do not delight in the knowledge of your ways.“Knowledge” here comes from the same knowing-root as “knoweth” in Job 18:21. The echo turns not knowing God into a stated refusal of knowing God’s ways, revealing the relationship at stake in the verse.
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