What Does Job 34:21 Mean?
For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he sees all his steps.
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
For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.THE KEY
A “way” is ground made by treading, and God sees both the course and every step that forms it.
THE MEANING
Your life’s direction and the particular steps within it are visible to God. The verse holds the whole path and each movement together in one unbroken sight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that private or routine parts of your life disappear from God’s view.
THE ROOT
דַּרְכֵי
darkhei
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread or step along; by extension, the path made by walking.
“ways of man” in this verse is darkhei. דֶּרֶךְ is a way made underfoot, so “ways” carries the sense of a lived course, not merely an intention. Paired with “goings,” it shows God seeing both the path and the steps that make it.
ALSO GROWS
derek: Way, road, or course of life.
דֶּרֶךְ
The path is something traveled, giving “ways” the weight of an enacted life.
darak: To tread, step, or march.
דָּרַךְ
The verb reveals the movement contained in the noun: a way is formed by treading.
צְעָדָיו
tze'adav
GROWS FROM
צעד
To step or stride.
The word translated “goings” pictures actual steps. Beside “ways,” it moves from the full course of a life to each distinct movement within it.
ALSO GROWS
tsa'ad: A step or stride.
צַעַד
It makes the verse’s “goings” concrete: these are the steps that compose a person’s way.
tsa'ad: To step or march.
צָעַד
The verb emphasizes movement, showing that the person’s course is made up of actions along the way.
THE PATTERN
Divine sight encompasses both the course of a life and its particular movements.
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he levels all his paths.You winnow my path and my lying down, and you are accustomed to all my ways.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.THE THREAD
You winnow my path and my lying down, and you are accustomed to all my ways.Job’s “ways” and the psalm’s “ways” share דֶּרֶךְ (derek), the trodden course of a life. The psalm extends that sight across movement and rest: even lying down is held within the path God knows.
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