What Does Job 33:31 Mean?
Prick up your ears, Job, and hear and respond to me; hush, and I will speak.
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
Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I will speak.THE KEY
Here, silence is a threshold between hearing and speech, not a cancellation of the listener.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as someone whose attention can make room for another voice. The pause is not empty: the speaker holds it with a promise to speak.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every pause means your voice is being erased: here, silence is joined to a stated intention to speak.
THE ROOT
שְׁמַע
shemaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed, or respond.
“hear and respond to me” in this verse is shemaʿ. The verb carries more than sound reaching the ear; it can mean hearing that takes something in and responds. English “hearken” can sound like mere attention, while this root holds listening and response together.
ALSO GROWS
shemūʿāh: A report or news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch makes hearing something received and carried, not just a sound passing by.
shōmēaʿ: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The verse addresses you as a listener, giving your attention an active place in the exchange.
הַחֲרֵשׁ
haḥărēš
GROWS FROM
חרש
Be silent or keep quiet; related usage also carries the sense of being deaf.
“hush” in this verse is haḥărēš. The silence here is a held response: the speaker asks Job to refrain from speaking while he takes his turn. A related form can mean “deaf,” bringing hearing and silence into the same word-family, though the verse uses the verb for keeping quiet.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērēš: A deaf person.
חֵרֵשׁ
This related form links silence with the absence of heard sound, sharpening the verse’s contrast between listening and withholding speech.
heḥĕrîš: He kept silent.
הֶחֱרִישׁ
This verbal form names silence as an act of restraint, matching the pause requested in the verse.
אֲדַבֵּר
ʾădabbēr
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak; the related noun names a word, matter, or thing.
“speak” in this verse is ʾădabbēr. The root connects speaking with the word or matter being spoken. The verse places that substantive speech after a held pause, so silence is the space before something is said.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The noun shows that speech concerns a matter with substance, not sound alone.
dibbēr: He spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This related verb makes the promised speech an action that follows the listener’s pause.
THE PATTERN
Listening and silence give speech room to become part of an exchange.
A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to hush, and a time to speak.The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to swell.THE THREAD
If there are words, answer me; speak, for I delight to align you.The next line changes the force of “hold thy peace”: the silence is not a permanent removal of Job’s voice. The turn returns to him with an explicit invitation to speak, making the pause part of an exchange.
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