What Does Job 31:7 Mean?
If my step has bent aside from the way, and my heart has walked after my eyes, and if any blemish has clung to my palms;
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 my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;THE KEY
The verse traces one chain: the eyes lead the heart, and the hands show where that gaze has taken it.
THE MEANING
Your steps can leave the way, your heart can follow what your eyes fix on, and a blemish can cling to your hands. The verse reaches beneath visible conduct to the gaze that guides the heart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If nothing harmful visibly clings to your hands, your heart has stayed on the way.
THE ROOT
עֵינַי
ʿênay
GROWS FROM
עין
Eye; the same word family also names a spring or fountain.
“mine eyes” in this verse is ʿênay. The verse says the heart walks after the eyes, and this word family also names a spring. That does not make “spring” a second meaning here; it hints that the gaze is a source from which direction begins.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye; also a spring or fountain.
עַיִן
The shared word links the eye with a source, fitting the verse’s picture of the gaze directing the heart.
maʿyan: Spring or fountain.
מַעְיָן
This related word makes the source connection visible: what the eye takes in can set the heart’s direction.
דָּבַק
dāvaq
GROWS FROM
דבק
To cling, adhere, or hold fast.
“clung” in this verse is dāvaq. The blemish does not merely touch the hands; the verb says it clings to them. The same root describes close attachment elsewhere, so the verse gives the stain the force of something held fast.
ALSO GROWS
dāvaq: To cling or cleave.
דָּבַק
The verb also describes clinging closely to God in Deuteronomy 10:20, showing how firmly something can adhere.
vedavaq: And shall cleave; the form used in Genesis 2:24 for a man cleaving to his wife.
וְדָבַק
The same verb can describe enduring attachment; here it names the way a blemish sticks to the hands.
THE PATTERN
What the eyes hold before the heart can direct the steps and leave its mark on the hands.
And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a craving for the eyes, and a tree to be desired for making one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.When I saw among the plunder a good mantle from Shinar, and two hundred weights of silver, and a tongue of gold of fifty weights, then I desired them and took them. And look, they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver beneath it.For all that is in the world, the craving of the flesh, and the craving of the eyes, and the swagger of life, does not come out of the Father, but comes out of the world.THE THREAD
Make my eyes pass over the sight of emptiness, and bring me to life in your way.Both verses join the eyes to the way: the same Hebrew word for eyes appears in each, as does the word for way. Job traces what happens when the heart follows the eyes; this verse links turning the gaze away from emptiness with renewed movement in the way.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us