What Does Job 21:15 Mean?
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what do we gain if we meet him?
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
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?THE KEY
The word translated “pray” comes from a root of meeting and intercession, so the verse asks whether an encounter with God is worth anything when it yields no profit.
THE MEANING
This question voices the moment when the Almighty is measured by what serving him returns, and prayer is treated as an encounter whose value must be proven. The calculation makes devotion worthwhile only if it produces a visible benefit for the self.
THE ROOT
נִפְגַּע
nifgaʿ
GROWS FROM
פגע
To meet, encounter, or come upon; in another stem, to intercede.
“meet him” in this verse is nifgaʿ. The verb rendered “pray” carries the language of meeting and, in another form, intercession. The question treats prayer as a transaction to be judged by its return, while the Hebrew also evokes an encounter.
ALSO GROWS
vayyifgeʿu: They met.
וַיִּפְגְּעוּ
This is the word used when God’s messengers meet Jacob, making the encounter within Job’s prayer-language visible.
yafgiʿa: He intercedes.
יַפְגִּיעַ
Isaiah uses this form for intercession, showing how the root of meeting also reaches toward appeal on another’s behalf.
נוֹעִיל
noʿil
GROWS FROM
יעל
To be of use or avail.
“gain” in this verse is noʿil. This root asks whether something is useful and names the benefit that comes from it. Beside “serve,” it reveals the verse’s ledger: what work do we do, and what useful return do we receive?
ALSO GROWS
toʿelet: Benefit, advantage, or usefulness.
תּוֹעֶלֶת
This noun makes explicit the question beneath “what profit”: what advantage does this bring?
moʿil: Useful or beneficial.
מוֹעִיל
This form shows that the root can describe whether something actually avails, the standard the speaker applies to prayer.
נַעַבְדֶנּוּ
naʿavdennu
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work or serve.
“serve” in this verse is naʿavdennu. The verb belongs to the same root as words for labor and a servant. Joined to “profit,” it makes devotion sound like work entered into an exchange: service on one side, return on the other.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
This branch puts the question of service in the concrete language of a person who serves.
ʿavodah: Work, labor, or service.
עֲבֹדָה
This branch makes the labor in “serve him” audible alongside the question of what that labor yields.
THE PATTERN
When devotion is reduced to a transaction, service is weighed by its payoff and obedience is treated as wasted effort.
You have said, It is empty to serve God. And what is the gain that we have guarded his watch, and that we have walked in darkness before the face of the LORD of hosts?So also you, when you have done all the things commanded you, say, We are servants without use; we have done what we owed.THE THREAD
And Jacob went on his way, and the messengers of God met him.The Hebrew word translated “met” comes from the same root, פגע (pagaʿ), that underlies “pray” in Job’s question. The echo opens prayer as an encounter, even as the speaker measures whether that encounter is worth anything.
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