What Does Job 31:29 Mean?
If I have rejoiced at the ruin of the one who hates me, or stirred myself when evil reached 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
If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:THE KEY
The verse exposes the difference between wanting justice and finding joy in the suffering of someone who hates you.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now: another person’s hatred does not make their misfortune a triumph. It describes a heart that does not rise in delight when harm finds an enemy.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being hated makes another person’s suffering sweet or worthy of celebration.
THE ROOT
אֶשְׂמַח
ʾesmaḥ
GROWS FROM
שמח
To rejoice or be glad; שָׂמַח (samaḥ).
“rejoiced” in this verse is ʾesmaḥ. Job names gladness itself, so the verse reaches beyond outward revenge to what the heart takes pleasure in. The same root appears in Proverbs’ warning not to rejoice when an enemy falls, making the shared root a link between these two descriptions of the inner response.
ALSO GROWS
simḥah: The state or experience of rejoicing.
שִׂמְחָה
The noun makes clear that the verse concerns the heart’s delight, not just an outward act.
sameaḥ: A person characterized by gladness.
שָׂמֵחַ
This related form shows the same root at work in the person who feels glad; here, that gladness is specifically tied to another’s ruin.
וְהִתְעֹרַרְתִּי
ve-hitʿorerati
GROWS FROM
עור
To wake, rouse, or stir into activity; עוּר (ʿur, “wake, rouse”).
“stirred myself” in this verse is ve-hitʿorerati. The Hebrew phrase carries the sense of stirring or rousing oneself, adding an inner surge to the KJV’s “lifted up myself.” When evil finds the hater, the verse pictures not only gladness but being stirred by that person’s calamity.
ALSO GROWS
ʿur: To awaken or become stirred into activity.
עוּר
This basic form reveals the stirring image beneath the speaker’s reaction.
heʿir: To cause someone or something to wake or become active.
הֵעִיר
This related form shows the same root describing an awakening or stirring, clarifying the force of the phrase in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Another person’s downfall reveals whether the heart delights in harm or in what is true.
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart leap when he stumbles.And do not gaze upon the day of your brother, the day he became a foreigner. Do not rejoice over the children of Judah on the day they lost their way. Do not make your mouth large in the day of the narrow place.Love does not rejoice over misalignment, but rejoices with truth.THE THREAD
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart leap when he stumbles.The Hebrew word for “rejoice” here shares the root שמח (samaḥ, “rejoice, be glad”) with Job’s “rejoiced.” Proverbs makes explicit the inward boundary Job names: even an enemy’s fall need not become a source of gladness.
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