What Does Job 29:20 Mean?
My weight was new within me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.
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
My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.THE KEY
What has weight within you can remain fresh, while the strength in your hand is renewed.
THE MEANING
Inner weight and newness coexist: what matters within you is not condemned to grow stale. Strength is renewed in the hand, restoring the capacity you carry into action.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what once carried weight must grow stale or that renewal means losing strength; the verse holds inner freshness and a renewed bow together.
THE ROOT
תַּחֲלִיף
taḥaliph
GROWS FROM
חלף
To pass, change, or exchange; renewal carries the sense of change.
“renewed” in this verse is taḥaliph. The bow is not merely preserved as it was: it changes in the hand. Renewal here is a fresh capacity, not simply the addition of more.
ALSO GROWS
yaḥalifu: They shall renew or change
יַחֲלִיפוּ
Isaiah uses this same root for strength that is renewed, opening Job’s bow into a wider image of renewed capacity.
ḥalifot: Changes or exchanges, including changes of clothing
חֲלִיפוֹת
The root’s language of exchange makes renewal a transition: one condition gives way to another.
כְּבוֹדִי
kevodí
GROWS FROM
כבד
To be heavy or carry weight.
The word translated “glory” carries the sense of weight: substance, significance, what has presence. Here that weight is fresh within the speaker, joining depth with newness.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy
כָּבֵד
This branch makes the word’s sense of weight audible beneath “glory.”
kavod: Weight, honor, glory
כָּבוֹד
The same word holds weight and honor together, so the speaker’s inner significance has substance.
חָדָשׁ
ḥadash
GROWS FROM
חדש
To be new or renew.
Freshness is described as newness within the speaker, beside the weight he carries. The verse lets what is substantial be new again.
ALSO GROWS
ḥadash: New, fresh
חָדָשׁ
This is the word used for the speaker’s glory: his inner weight is fresh with him.
ḥodesh: Month, associated with the new moon
חֹדֶשׁ
The related word preserves the image of newness returning in a cycle.
THE PATTERN
Renewal makes inner strength fresh again and restores capacity for the work at hand.
But those who wait upon the LORD exchange their strength; they rise on wings like eagles; they run and do not tire; they walk and do not faint.Who fills your mouth with goodness, and your youth is made new like the eagle's.Therefore we do not give out; though our outer person is worn through, yet our inner person is made new day after day.THE THREAD
But those who wait upon the LORD exchange their strength; they rise on wings like eagles; they run and do not tire; they walk and do not faint.Job’s “renewed” and Isaiah’s “shall renew” come from חלף (ḥ-l-p), meaning to pass, change, or exchange. Isaiah’s renewed strength opens Job’s bow in the hand into the same picture: capacity made fresh again.
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