What Does Job 32:15 Mean?
They were shattered. They answered no more. They removed their words from themselves.
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
They were amazed, they answered no more: they left off speaking.THE KEY
The verse pictures silence as words moved away from the speakers, giving their astonishment the force of displacement.
THE MEANING
A reply can stop when dismay leaves words out of reach. Silence here does not settle what a person believes; it can be the shape astonishment takes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Silence does not always mean agreement; dismay can leave a person without a reply.
THE ROOT
הֶעְתִּיקוּ מֵהֶם מִלִּים
heʿtîqû mēhem millîm
GROWS FROM
עתק
ʿ-t-q
To move, shift, or transfer from a place.
“removed their words from themselves” in this verse is heʿtîqû mēhem millîm. Under “left off speaking,” the Hebrew adds an image of words moved away from the speakers. Their silence feels less like a chosen pause and more like speech displaced out of reach.
ALSO GROWS
yeʿtāq: Is moved or removed from its place.
יֶעְתָּק
In Job 14:18, the same root describes a rock removed from its place, giving the words’ departure a concrete sense of displacement.
hammaʿtîq: The one who removes or shifts.
הַמַּעְתִּיק
Job 9:5 uses this form for the one who removes mountains; here the root’s image of movement applies to words leaving their speakers.
חַתּוּ
ḥattû
GROWS FROM
חתת
ḥ-t-t
To be shattered, dismayed, or struck with terror.
“were shattered” in this verse is ḥattû. The word translated “amazed” carries the force of being dismayed or shattered, not just curious wonder. The root makes the silence feel like an effect of being struck by what is before them.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṯaṯ: To be shattered, dismayed, or afraid.
חָתַת
This verb shows the disruption beneath their amazement: their readiness to answer has broken down.
məḥittāh: Terror, ruin, or destruction.
מְחִתָּה
This related noun gives the root’s dismay a forceful edge, fitting a moment that leaves no words to offer.
THE PATTERN
When astonishment or exposure overwhelms a ready reply, speech can fall away and the mouth goes quiet.
Princes held back their speech, and set their palm upon their mouth.And they could not seize on his words before the people. They marveled at his answer, and held their tongues.Now we know that whatever the instruction says, it speaks to those under the instruction, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may come under the verdict of God.THE THREAD
And surely the mountain falls and melts, and the rock is moved from its place.Job uses the same root, עתק (ʿ-t-q), meaning to move or remove, for a rock shifted from its place. Here words are moved away from their speakers, making speechlessness feel like displacement.
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