What Does Job 34:36 Mean?
My desire is that Job be tested to the end, because of his turnings like men of crookedness.
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
My desire is that Job may be tried unto the end because of his answers for wicked men.THE KEY
The Hebrew phrase for “unto the end” can mean “to perpetuity,” leaving Job under a test with no stated stopping point.
THE MEANING
A demand for proof can keep extending itself until every answer becomes further evidence of guilt. Elihu wants Job tested to the end because he reads Job’s replies as siding with wicked men; the examination has no stated point at which an answer can close the case.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undercuts the belief that asking for another test is necessarily impartial: Elihu’s request grows from his judgment of Job’s answers.
THE ROOT
נֶצַח
netsaḥ
GROWS FROM
נצח
n-ṣ-ḥ
In this noun, enduring duration or perpetuity.
KJV’s “end” sounds like a point at which the test concludes, but עַד־נֶצַח (ad-netsaḥ, “to perpetuity”) can mean “forever.” Elihu’s wording leaves the limit unset: the test is imagined as lasting, without a specified close.
ALSO GROWS
nētsaḥ: Continuance; enduring duration.
נֵצַח
This duration sense is carried by the word translated “end” in Job’s sentence.
lanetsaḥ: Forever; perpetually.
לָנֶצַח
Isaiah 57:16 uses this form for “for ever,” showing how this root can express an unbounded span.
יִבָּחֵן
yibbāḥēn
GROWS FROM
בחן
b-ḥ-n
To examine, test, or assay.
The form means “may be examined” or “may be tested.” The same root is used for examining the heart; here, the stated reason for testing Job is his replies, so the examiner’s purpose matters.
ALSO GROWS
beḥānēnî: Examine me; test me.
בְּחָנֵנִי
Psalm 26:2 uses this form in a request for the heart and inner life to be examined.
bōḥēn: One who examines or tests.
בֹּחֵן
Jeremiah 17:10 calls the LORD the one who tests the heart, making the examiner explicit.
תְּשׁוּבֹתָיו
teshuvotav
GROWS FROM
שוב
shuv
To turn or return; from this root, a reply is something returned in response.
“turnings” in this verse is teshuvotav. The word rendered “answers” is related to שׁוּב (shuv, “turn” or “return”). Hebrew keeps the sense of words coming back in response, so Job’s speech remains part of an exchange even as Elihu treats it as evidence against him.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn; return.
שׁוּב
This verbal root supplies the image of something coming back, which underlies the word for a reply.
teshuvah: A return; an answer or reply.
תְּשׁוּבָה
Job’s plural form, תְּשׁוּבֹתָיו (teshuvotav, “his answers”), belongs to this same word family.
THE PATTERN
Testing brings the tested person into view while also revealing the purpose of the one demanding the test.
Examine me, O LORD, and test me; refine my kidneys and my heart.The smelting pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the LORD probes the hearts.so that the proving of your trust, far costlier than gold that perishes though it is tested through fire, may be found unto praise and weight and honor at the unveiling of Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Examine me, O LORD, and test me; refine my kidneys and my heart.Job’s “may be tried” and the psalm’s “Examine me” share בחן (b-ḥ-n, “examine or test”). The same root appears in a request for truth to be exposed and in Elihu’s demand that Job’s trial continue.
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