What Does Job 20:6 Mean?
Though his rising climbs to the heavens, and his head touches the clouds;
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
Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;THE KEY
The verse piles height upon height: eminence rises, and the head, the top, reaches toward the clouds.
THE MEANING
Visible greatness can seem to lift a person beyond every limit, as if even the clouds were within reach. Yet the sentence carries that height into ruin: a high position cannot make anyone unreachable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that becoming impressive enough makes a person untouchable.
THE ROOT
יַעֲלֶה
yaʿaleh
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿalah
To go up, rise, or ascend.
This root names movement upward, not a permanent state. Its branches let the verse’s ascent echo in words for an offering that rises and a path that climbs.
ALSO GROWS
ʿolah: Rising offering; burnt offering.
עֹלָה
The offering’s name carries the same upward motion as the person mounting toward the heavens.
maʿalah: Ascent; step or upward climb.
מַעֲלָה
This branch makes the rise feel like a climb, a movement that can continue without becoming secure.
רֹאשׁוֹ
rosho
GROWS FROM
ראש
rosh
Head, top, chief, or first.
The head is both a body part and the topmost point; the same root can name what is first or foremost. English gives us a head touching the clouds, while the Hebrew also lets the image carry a person’s highest rank.
ALSO GROWS
reshit: Beginning, first, or firstfruits.
רֵאשִׁית
The branch links the head or top with what comes first, adding primacy to the image of height.
rishon: First, former, or foremost.
רִאשׁוֹן
This branch echoes the verse’s picture of someone occupying the highest or foremost place.
THE PATTERN
Height gained through self-exaltation never places a person beyond being brought low.
For you said in your heart, I will go up to the heavens. Above the stars of God I will lift my throne. I will sit on the mountain of assembly, on the flanks of the north.For everyone who lifts himself will be brought low; and the one who lowers himself will be lifted up.Be made low before the face of the LORD, and he will lift you up.THE THREAD
For you said in your heart, I will go up to the heavens. Above the stars of God I will lift my throne. I will sit on the mountain of assembly, on the flanks of the north.Job’s “mount up” and Isaiah’s “I will ascend” use the same Hebrew root, עלה (ʿalah), meaning to rise or go up. Isaiah gives the ascent a voice; Job gives it a cloud-high image, and the sentence that follows exposes how little height guarantees.
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