What Does Job 20:29 Mean?
This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance spoken for him by 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
This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.THE KEY
The verse makes judgment an inheritance: the wicked person’s portion is presented as an allotment from God.
THE MEANING
This verse names the wicked person’s outcome as a share from God and an inheritance appointed by God. Its paired images present that outcome as an allotted share under God’s judgment, not an accident beyond divine sight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wickedness leaves a person’s final accounting untouched by God.
THE ROOT
חֵלֶק
ḥēleq
GROWS FROM
חלק
ḥ-l-q
To divide, apportion, or share.
The Hebrew word חֵלֶק (ḥēleq, portion or share) carries the sense of an apportioned part. Paired with inheritance, it presents the wicked person’s judgment as an allotted share.
ALSO GROWS
ḥālaq: Divide or apportion.
חָלַק
The verb exposes the act of allotting within the idea of a person’s portion.
ḥăluqqāh: Division or distribution.
חֲלֻקָּה
It echoes the way a share is marked out from a larger whole.
נַחֲלָה
naḥălāh
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
To inherit or take possession.
נַחֲלָה (naḥălāh, inheritance or possession) describes something received as one’s own. Beside חֵלֶק (ḥēleq, share), it makes the verse’s outcome sound like a received inheritance rather than a passing event.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: Inherit or possess.
נָחַל
The verb shows the act of receiving or taking possession that underlies heritage.
hinḥîl: Cause to inherit; give as a possession.
הִנְחִיל
This causative form illuminates the verse’s image of an inheritance assigned to someone.
אִמְרוֹ
ʾimrō
GROWS FROM
אמר
ʾ-m-r
To say, speak, or utter.
“spoken for him” in this verse is ʾimrō. The Hebrew wording behind appointed is אִמְרוֹ (ʾimrō, his utterance), from the root אמר (ʾāmar, say or speak). The word family carries the sense of an utterance or decree, framing the inheritance as a pronounced allotment from God.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāmar: Say or speak.
אָמַר
This verb supplies the root sense behind the wording rendered appointed.
ʾimrāh: Utterance or saying.
אִמְרָה
This related noun makes audible the decree-like shade within the inheritance phrase.
THE PATTERN
A person’s portion is disclosed by the inheritance received under God’s judgment or care.
This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the inheritance of the fierce ones, which they take from the Almighty.The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.And these go away into the punishment of the ages, but the aligned into the life of the ages.THE THREAD
The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.Job’s חֵלֶק (ḥēleq, share) names the wicked person’s portion; Psalm 16:5 uses the same Hebrew word when the LORD is called the speaker’s portion. The word holds both judgment and belonging, the difference lies in what the share contains.
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