What Does Job 31:37 Mean?
I would declare to him the count of my steps; as a prince I would draw near to 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
I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.THE KEY
The Hebrew uses one root for “I would declare” and “a prince”: Job’s boldness is that he can bring every step into the open and still approach.
THE MEANING
Here, you meet a confidence willing to disclose each step and approach God with a ruler’s boldness. The speaker claims his path can bear scrutiny; nearness and a full accounting stand together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that you must hide your record to approach God: the verse joins nearness with full disclosure.
THE ROOT
אַגִּידֶנּוּ
ʾaggîdennû
GROWS FROM
נגד
To tell, make known, or bring into view.
“declare to him” in this verse is ʾaggîdennû. The words translated “I would declare” and “a prince” both grow from נגד. Job’s claim is strikingly open: he is ready to make his steps known and approach with the bearing of a prince.
ALSO GROWS
nagad: Tell, declare, make known.
נָגַד
This is the root behind Job’s willingness to state the record of his steps.
nagid: Leader, ruler, prince.
נָגִיד
This is the title Job uses for the way he would approach: openly and without shrinking.
מִסְפָּר
mispār
GROWS FROM
ספר
To count or recount.
“count” in this verse is mispār. The Hebrew word for “number” belongs to a root that also carries the sense of recounting. Job is ready not merely to offer a conclusion about his life, but to account for its steps.
ALSO GROWS
sāpar: Count, recount, tell.
סָפַר
The count of Job’s steps is something he can speak through, one by one.
sēfer: Book, written record.
סֵפֶר
This branch echoes the sense of an account that can be laid open and examined.
צַעֲדַי
tsaʿaday
GROWS FROM
צעד
To step or stride.
“steps” in this verse is tsaʿaday. This word keeps attention on the path as a sequence of actual movements, not just a final verdict. Job is willing to bring the route itself into view, one stride at a time.
ALSO GROWS
tsaʿad: Step, stride, march.
צָעַד
The root makes Job’s “steps” concrete movements that can be counted and declared.
miṣʿād: Step, footstep, march.
מִצְעָד
This related form preserves the same image of a path made from individual steps.
THE PATTERN
The whole path can be known and brought into the light before God.
You winnow my path and my lying down, and you are accustomed to all my ways.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we share in common one with another, and the blood of Jesus, the Anointed One, his Son, cleanses us from all falling short.THE THREAD
The steps of a strong one are set firm by the LORD, and he delights in his way.The word “steps” in both verses comes from צעד (tsaʿad, step or stride). Job is ready to disclose each step; Psalm 37:23 describes those steps as established by the LORD.
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