What Does Job 35:15 Mean?
But now, because he does not visit in the burning of his anger, and does not know it in great rebellion.
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
But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:THE KEY
The word translated “visited” can also mean to attend, count, or muster, so the verse frames anger as consequential attention while leaving its final clause difficult to parse.
THE MEANING
The verse names visitation in anger, then leaves the relation between knowing and great extremity difficult to parse. It speaks now from the strain between an overwhelming condition and the question of whether that condition is recognized or reckoned, without explaining the suffering away.
THE ROOT
פָּקַד
paqad
GROWS FROM
פקד
To attend to or take account of; by extension, to muster, appoint, or visit.
“does not visit” in this verse is paqad. English “visit” can sound like a brief arrival, but פקד (paqad), meaning to attend or take account, carries the sense of active notice. Here, that makes visitation consequential without settling the difficult clause that follows.
ALSO GROWS
pequddah: Charge, oversight, or appointed responsibility
פְּקֻדָּה
This branch shows that the root can describe sustained attention and accountability, not just arrival.
mifqad: Numbering or muster
מִפְקָד
The same root can gather and count what is present, deepening the sense of visitation as taking account.
פֶּשַׁע
peshaʿ
GROWS FROM
פשע
To break away or rebel; פֶּשַׁע (peshaʿ) means rebellion or breach.
“great rebellion” in this verse is peshaʿ. The phrase rendered “great extremity” contains the word for rebellion or breaking away, intensified by “great.” That adds the sense of a breach to the verse’s difficult description of what is not known or reckoned.
ALSO GROWS
pashaʿ: To rebel or break away
פָּשַׁע
The verb makes the root’s sense of separation active, giving the phrase more depth than sheer severity.
posheaʿ: A rebel, one who breaks away
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This form shows the same root describing the one associated with the breach.
יָדַע
yadaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or acknowledge.
“does not know it” in this verse is yadaʿ. יָדַע (yadaʿ), meaning to know or recognize, can speak of recognition rather than mere possession of a fact. Its presence makes the verse’s question about what is known or acknowledged especially sharp, even though the clause remains difficult to parse.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge or understanding
דַּעַת
This noun carries the same root into the state of knowing or understanding.
hodiʿa: To make known or inform
הוֹדִיעַ
This form links knowing with disclosure, adding the possibility of something being recognized or brought into view.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses visitation for active attention to a person or condition, not a passing arrival.
And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had spoken.Go, gather the elders of Israel, and say to them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you, and have seen what is done to you in Egypt.But someone in a certain place bore witness, saying, What is humankind, that you remember him? Or the son of man, that you look upon him?THE THREAD
Go, gather the elders of Israel, and say to them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you, and have seen what is done to you in Egypt.The same Hebrew root, פקד (paqad), meaning to attend to or take account, stands behind “visited” in both verses. Exodus makes the root’s range vivid: visitation includes seeing what is done, while Job places that attention beside anger and an unresolved statement about knowing.
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