What Does Job 32:21 Mean?
Let me not, I pray you, lift the face of any man, nor give flattering titles to man.
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
Let me not, I pray you, accept any man’s person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man.THE KEY
The Hebrew pictures partiality as lifting someone’s face, so favoritism is an act of elevation before it becomes a word.
THE MEANING
A person’s standing can raise them in your eyes, then raise them again through words chosen to please them. This verse holds impartial regard and truthful speech together: neither a person’s status nor the desire for their favor sets the weight of what you say.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a flattering title is only politeness; praise can quietly carry someone’s status into speech and bend what is said about them.
THE ROOT
אֶשָּׂא פְּנֵי־אִישׁ
essā p'nei ish
GROWS FROM
נשא
to lift, carry, bear, or take up
“lift the face of any man” in this verse is essā p'nei ish. The Hebrew phrase literally pictures lifting a man’s face. The root also holds the sense of carrying: special regard can lift a person above others and carry their status into judgment.
ALSO GROWS
nasi: leader, prince
נָשִׂיא
This title for a person in authority echoes the image of someone socially elevated.
massa: burden, load; something carried
מַשָּׂא
The same root can describe what is borne, suggesting how a person’s standing can be carried into the way they are regarded.
THE PATTERN
Honest judgment and speech do not lift a person’s standing above the truth.
You shall do no crookedness in judgment; you shall not lift up the face of the bowed down, nor adorn the face of the great; but in alignment shall you judge the one beside you.For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, the awe-inspiring, who does not lift up the face of any and does not take a bribe.Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face.THE THREAD
How much less to him who does not lift up the face of princes, nor regards the rich above the poor? For they all are the work of his hands.This verse repeats the image of lifting a face and names princes, rich, and poor to make the issue of status visible. It opens Job 32:21 further: refusing to flatter is part of the same impartial regard that does not elevate one person above another.
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