What Does Job 23:13 Mean?
But he is one, and who can turn him back? What his living soul craves, that he does.
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 he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.THE KEY
His purpose is not divided from his desire: what his living self longs for, he does, and no one turns him back.
THE MEANING
You meet a will that remains whole: no one can turn it from its course. What that living self desires reaches action; the verse leaves no gap between intention and deed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that enough pressure or persuasion can redirect God from his purpose: it says no one can turn him.
THE ROOT
יְשִׁיבֶנּוּ
yeshivennu
GROWS FROM
שוב
sh-w-b
to return, turn back
“turn him back” in this verse is yeshivennu. The verb behind “turn” carries the sense of return and reversal: the question is who can make him turn back. The same root can describe God turning a human condition, as the connected verse shows.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: return; turn back
שׁוּב
This is the verb family at the heart of the question of whether his course can be reversed.
teshuvah: return; turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun makes the sense of turning as return explicit, sharpening the force of “who can turn him?”.
אִוְּתָה
ʾiwwətāh
GROWS FROM
אוה
ʾ-w-h
to desire, long for
“craves” in this verse is ʾiwwətāh. This verb names desire or longing, and its root family includes both craving and directed desire. Paired with “he doeth,” the verse presents desire reaching completion in action.
ALSO GROWS
ta'avah: desire; longing; craving
תַּאֲוָה
This noun shows the desire in the verse as a substantial longing, not a passing thought.
hit'avvah: to long for; desire
הִתְאַוָּה
This verb shows desire directed toward something, as the verse joins the living self’s desire to what is done.
נַפְשׁוֹ
nafsho
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
the living self; life and appetite
“living soul” in this verse is nafsho. Nephesh names the living self and can also refer to life, person, or appetite. Here the very self that desires is immediately linked to the act.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: living self; life; person; appetite
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word translated “soul” in the verse, joining desire to the whole living self.
naphash: to rest; refresh oneself
נָפַשׁ
This related verb keeps the root family connected to living existence and its restoration.
THE PATTERN
When God’s purpose is settled in his own will, no outside force overturns it, and it becomes action.
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient days the things not yet made, saying, My counsel will stand, and all that I delight in I will make.But our God is in the heavens, and he does whatever he delights in.In him we also have been allotted an inheritance, marked out beforehand according to the aim of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will.THE THREAD
And the LORD returned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD added to all that was Job's, twice over.The same Hebrew root shuv (שׁוּב, “return” or “turn back”) appears in both verses. Here no one can turn God back; there, God turns Job’s condition.
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