What Does Job 31:5 Mean?
If I have walked with emptiness, and my foot has hurried toward deceit;
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 have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;THE KEY
Integrity is not only what you refuse to say; it is what your life keeps company with and what your feet rush toward.
THE MEANING
The verse makes integrity visible in motion: what your life keeps company with over time, and where your steps hurry in a moment, both disclose its direction. Emptiness and deceit are not abstractions here; they are companions a path can take.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that integrity means only avoiding an explicit spoken lie is too narrow: this verse also weighs the path you keep and the direction your steps hasten.
THE ROOT
שָׁוְא
shav
GROWS FROM
שוא
Emptiness, futility, or falsehood.
“emptiness” in this verse is shav. Shav reaches beyond vanity as mere pride or triviality: it can name what is empty, futile, or false. The verse pictures a path keeping company with something that lacks substance and may carry falsehood within it.
ALSO GROWS
lashav: In vain; futilely; to no purpose.
לַשָּׁוְא
The same root describes action spent on what has no substance or result.
ed shav: False witness.
עֵד שָׁוְא
Here shav marks testimony as false, showing how emptiness shades into deception.
מִרְמָה
mirmah
GROWS FROM
רמה
To deceive, beguile, or act treacherously.
“deceit” in this verse is mirmah. Mirmah names active deception or treachery, while shav names emptiness or falsehood. Together they expose both what a path keeps company with and the dishonest direction a step may take.
ALSO GROWS
ramah: To deceive or beguile.
רָמָה
The verb makes the action behind deceit visible.
mirmah: Deceit, guile, or treachery.
מִרְמָה
The noun names the deceptive course toward which the foot hurries.
הָלַכְתִּי
halakhti
GROWS FROM
הלך
To go, walk, or proceed.
“walked” in this verse is halakhti. The same root names physical going and the broader course a life takes. Job’s wording makes direction and company part of integrity, not merely a private claim about being honest.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: To walk or go.
הָלַךְ
It is the basic movement named in Job’s statement.
halikhah: A walk, journey, or course.
הֲלִיכָה
This form shows how the root can describe a sustained path, illuminating the verse’s concern with what a life accompanies.
THE PATTERN
A life’s integrity is disclosed by the company its steps keep and by whether its path accords with truth.
Flourishing is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of those who miss the mark, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers.Level the track of your feet, and let all your ways stand firm.If we say that we share in common with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not do the truth.THE THREAD
Flourishing is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of those who miss the mark, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers.Job’s “walked” and Psalm’s “walketh” come from הלך (halakh, to walk or go), so both make a person’s direction visible as a path shaped by company. Psalm names counsel as an influence on that path; Job names emptiness and deceit as what the path may accompany.
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