What Does Job 36:2 Mean?
Wait for me a little, and I will show you, for there are yet words for God.
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
Suffer me a little, and I will shew thee that I have yet to speak on God’s behalf.THE KEY
The verb behind “suffer me a little” also means “encircle,” so the requested pause becomes a small space holding words that have not yet been spoken.
THE MEANING
A little time remains, and the words concerning God are not exhausted. The verse meets the reader in the moment speech feels complete and keeps open the possibility that more can be made known.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
That the matter concerning God is already fully spoken.
THE ROOT
כַּתַּר
kattar
GROWS FROM
כתר
k-t-r
To encircle or surround; also to wait or tarry.
“Wait for me” in this verse is kattar. The verb is כַּתַּר (kattar, wait or tarry), from כתר (k-t-r, encircle or surround). Waiting here carries an image of a bounded interval: a little enclosure around speech that is still coming.
ALSO GROWS
kitteruni: They encircled me.
כִּתְּרוּנִי
In Psalm 22:12, this form shows the root’s sense of surrounding.
keter: Crown.
כֶּתֶר
A crown encircles the head, preserving the root’s image of surrounding.
מִלִּים
millim
GROWS FROM
מלל
m-l-l
To speak or utter.
The noun מִלִּים (millim, words) comes from מלל (m-l-l, speak or utter); Job 32:18 uses the same noun where the KJV says matter. Hebrew leaves the remaining words visible: the content itself is still present.
ALSO GROWS
millah: A word or utterance.
מִלָּה
This singular form makes explicit that the verse’s remaining speech consists of words.
temallel: You speak or utter.
תְּמַלֶּל
In Job 8:2, this verb from the same root directly names the act of speaking.
THE PATTERN
Speech is not exhausted by the present moment; a brief pause can hold words still waiting to be spoken.
For I am full of words. The breath within my belly presses me.A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to hush, and a time to speak.I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot carry them now.THE THREAD
For I am full of words. The breath within my belly presses me.Both verses contain מִלִּים (millim, words). The KJV renders the word as matter here and reshapes the phrase in Job 36:2 as speech, connecting what is held within with what remains to be said.
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