What Does Job 20:5 Mean?
That the ringing cry of the wicked is cut short, and the joy of the soiled is but a moment?
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 the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?THE KEY
The loudness of a triumph tells you nothing about how long it can hold.
THE MEANING
A triumph can be loud and visible while its span remains brief. When another person’s success appears to prove that wickedness has won, this verse separates the sound of victory from its staying power. The joy is a moment of experience, not a promise of permanence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Visible success proves that wickedness has secured lasting joy.
THE ROOT
רִנְנַת
rinnat
GROWS FROM
רנן
ranan
To ring out, cry aloud, or sing and shout for joy.
The word translated “triumphing” is a sound-word: it carries the sense of a ringing cry or song, making the wicked person’s victory audible and public. The verse’s focus is not the volume of that cry but how briefly it lasts.
ALSO GROWS
rinnah: A ringing shout or song of joy.
רִנָּה
It shows that the triumph is expressed as an audible celebration.
yiranenu: They shout for joy.
יְרַנְּנוּ
Psalm 5:11 uses this form for a shout that continues “ever,” highlighting the contrast with Job’s momentary triumph.
THE PATTERN
A visible display of success can appear powerful while its hold is brief.
I have seen the wicked gripping hard, spreading himself like a rising green tree. Yet he crossed over, and look, he was not; I sought him, but he could not be found.For the sun rises with its scorching heat, and dries the grass, and its flower falls, and the beauty of its shape perishes; so also the rich one withers in his goings.For all flesh is as grass, and all its weight is as the blossom of grass. The grass dries, and the blossom falls.THE THREAD
But let all who take shelter in you rejoice; let them ring out for joy for the ages, and you cover them. Let those who love your nature leap for joy in you.Job names the triumph with רִנְנַת (rinnat), a cry or song of joy; Psalm 5:11 uses the same רנן (ranan) root for a shout that continues “ever.” The shared root reveals a contrast between a shout measured by a moment and one described as enduring.
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