What Does Job 35:1 Mean?
And Elihu answered and said.
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
Elihu spake moreover, and said,THE KEY
Elihu (אֱלִיהוּא, ʾĔlîhû, “He is my God”) is named just before the verse marks his words as an answer.
THE MEANING
The voice you meet here arrives already within an exchange: the verb introducing it means to answer or respond, before the utterance is given. You receive the relation before the argument, a speaker responding to what has already been said.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעַן
wayyaʿan
GROWS FROM
ענה
to answer, respond
“answered and said” in this verse is wayyaʿan. The KJV wording carries the moment of speech; the Hebrew verb ענה (ʿanah, “answer, respond”) also makes its responsive role visible. Before you hear any claim, the verse places this speech as one turn in an exchange.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānāh: to answer, respond
עָנָה
This verbal form names the act that frames Elihu’s speech.
maʿaneh: an answer, reply
מַעֲנֶה
This noun from the same root makes the response itself a thing in the exchange.
THE PATTERN
Speech is presented as a response within an exchange already underway.
And Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite, answered and said, I am young, and you are very old. Therefore I was afraid, and I dared not show you what I know.And after they had fallen silent, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, give ear to me.In that season Jesus answered, and said, I give thanks to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have covered these things from the wise and the discerning, and have uncovered them to the infants.THE THREAD
Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you turn back to me.Both turn on ענה (ʿanah, “answer, respond”): Job asks for a reciprocal exchange, while this verse introduces Elihu as answering. The shared root lets you hear Elihu’s speech as one turn in an exchange whose other voices are already present.
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