What Does Job 21:1 Mean?
And Job answered and said.
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
But Job answered and said,THE KEY
The afflicted man is introduced by the fact that he answers: his suffering has not erased his voice.
THE MEANING
You are in an exchange, not sealed beneath the words spoken around you. Job answers, and then he speaks; the verse holds both the response and the voice that follows it in view.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעַן
wayyaʿan
GROWS FROM
ענה
To answer or respond.
“answered” in this verse is wayyaʿan. The consonants ענה also occur in a separate verb meaning to afflict or humble; the words echo, though they are not interchangeable meanings. Here that echo is striking: the one under affliction is named by his answering.
ALSO GROWS
yaʿaneh: He answers or will answer.
יַעֲנֶה
The same answering verb makes reply an action within an exchange.
maʿaneh: An answer or response.
מַעֲנֶה
The reply becomes a response that can be heard, not merely speech that disappears.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, answering names a voice entering a relationship already in motion.
Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you turn back to me.And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.Jesus answered and said to them, Go, and tell John what you have seen and heard, that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are roused, and the good news is brought to the emptied.THE THREAD
Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you turn back to me.Job uses the same Hebrew root ענה (ʿanah, answer or respond) when he asks for a direct exchange: call, and he will answer; let him speak, and receive an answer. That makes the spare phrase here feel relational, Job’s reply is a voice inside a contested conversation, not a detached announcement.
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