What Does Job 31:23 Mean?
For calamity from God came upon me as dread, and before his lifting up I could not bear.
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
For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for God’s “highness” grows from the root for lifting and bearing, so divine majesty is pictured as an elevation Job cannot endure.
THE MEANING
The terror of destruction from God fills your perception, and his highness is more than you can endure. The verse holds the fear and the limit of your strength together without resolving either.
THE ROOT
מִשְּׂאֵתוֹ
miśśeʾētô
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-ś-ʾ
to lift, carry, or bear
The word translated “highness” comes from the root for lifting and bearing. English can make majesty sound like a rank; the Hebrew also carries the image of elevation, before which Job says he cannot endure.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: lift, carry, bear
נָשָׂא
This verb names the lifting action behind the word translated “highness.”
nasi: leader, prince
נָשִׂיא
A title for a leader grows from the same root, connecting elevation with being raised to a position.
massa: burden, load; also an oracle
מַשָּׂא
A burden is something carried, showing that the same root spans lifting and bearing.
פַּחַד
paḥad
GROWS FROM
פחד
p-ḥ-d
to dread or be seized by fear
“dread” in this verse is paḥad. This root names Job’s terror and also appears in the phrase “the Fear of Isaac” (פַּחַד יִצְחָק, paḥad Yiṣḥaq), used for God in Genesis 31:42. The connection keeps the fear relational and formidable, rather than a vague feeling.
ALSO GROWS
paḥad: terror, dread
פַּחַד
This is the noun Job uses, making the force of his fear explicit.
yifḥad: he fears, he dreads
יִפְחַד
The verbal form presents fear as an active response, rooted in the same word-family as Job’s terror.
paḥad Yiṣḥaq: the Fear of Isaac
פַּחַד יִצְחָק
This phrase in Genesis 31:42 uses the same noun as a title for God, linking dread with a person’s relation to divine presence.
THE PATTERN
God’s overwhelming presence lays bare the limit of human endurance.
You, even you, are held in awe; and who can stand before your face in the burning of your anger?And they said to Moses, You speak with us, and we will hear and respond. But do not let God speak with us, lest we die.And so awesome was what appeared, that Moses said, “I am shaken out of myself and trembling.”THE THREAD
In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord settled upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.Job’s “highness” and Isaiah’s “lifted up” share the Hebrew root נשא (n-ś-ʾ), meaning to lift, carry, or bear. Isaiah gives the elevation an image: the one lifted up fills the temple, opening Job’s inability to endure as a response to overwhelming majesty.
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