What Does Job 22:21 Mean?
Settle now with him and be whole; your yield is good.
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
Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “acquaint” also names profit, so familiarity with God is presented as the human good.
THE MEANING
The verse joins nearness to God with wholeness, and describes good as coming into your life from that settled relationship. Its language points beyond a passing calm to a life made whole in his presence.
THE ROOT
וּשְׁלָם
u-shelam
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
to be whole or complete; to make whole or settle
“be whole” in this verse is u-shelam. The verb rendered “be at peace” shares its root with שָׁלוֹם (shalom, peace and wholeness) and שָׁלֵם (shalem, whole or complete). The verse therefore presents peace as wholeness in relationship, not just the absence of conflict.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: peace, wholeness
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch shows that the verse’s peace belongs to a wider language of becoming whole.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It reveals the completeness carried beneath the English phrase “be at peace.”
shillem: repay, make good
שִׁלֵּם
This branch gives the root a sense of settling or restoring what is due, adding depth to peace as a restored state.
הַסְכֶּן
hasken
GROWS FROM
סכן
s-k-n
to become familiar or accustomed; to be useful or profitable
The word translated “acquaint” comes from a root that also speaks of being useful or profitable. Just one verse earlier, the same root appears in a question about whether a person can profit God; here, familiarity with God is linked to the person’s own good.
ALSO GROWS
yiskan: be useful or profitable
יִסְכָּן
In Job 22:2, this form uses the same root in the question “Can a man be profitable unto God,” echoing the word for “acquaint” in this verse.
eskhon: I profit or gain
אֶסְכֹּן
In Job 35:3, the root again asks what a person gains, keeping benefit and familiarity close in the language of Job.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness takes shape where a person turns toward God and seeks peace.
You will keep in wholeness upon wholeness the one whose shaped mind rests upon you, for in you he leans his full weight.Turn aside from evil and do good; seek wholeness and pursue it.Therefore, aligned through trust, we have wholeness with God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Can a strong man profit God, as the wise one prospers himself?Job 22:2 uses the same Hebrew root behind “acquaint” for “profitable.” The echo links the question of whether a person can benefit God with this verse’s picture of the good that comes through becoming familiar with him.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us