What Does Job 36:21 Mean?
Guard yourself; do not turn toward crookedness, for this you have chosen over affliction.
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
Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction.THE KEY
The hidden hinge is direction: before iniquity becomes action, “regard not” tells you not to turn toward it.
THE MEANING
This warning meets you where affliction makes a harmful path seem preferable. It says that turning toward iniquity is a choice, even under pressure. The command to take heed comes before that turn hardens into a chosen course.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Affliction leaves me no choice in what I turn toward.
THE ROOT
תֵּפֶן
tefen
GROWS FROM
פנה
panah
to turn or face toward
“do not turn toward” in this verse is tefen. English “regard” can sound like a judgment held in the mind, but תֵּפֶן names a turning toward. The verse locates the danger in the direction attention faces.
ALSO GROWS
panim: face or presence
פָּנִים
The face turns toward what it attends to, making the verb’s sense of regard a direction.
pinnah: corner
פִּנָּה
A corner is where a direction turns; this branch carries the root’s sense of turning into space.
הִשָּׁמֶר
hishamer
GROWS FROM
שמר
shamar
to guard, keep, or watch over
“Guard yourself” in this verse is hishamer. The opening command is active keeping, not a passing glance. This root names both the watchman and what is entrusted to a watch, placing attention at the threshold before the turn.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: keeper or watchman
שֹׁמֵר
The watchman stays alert to what approaches, echoing the verse’s call to watch before turning.
mishmeret: guard duty, charge, or watch
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
A charge is something kept under watch; heed here carries that sustained care.
THE PATTERN
The direction of attention shapes the path a person chooses, especially under pressure.
Make my eyes pass over the sight of emptiness, and bring me to life in your way.Above every watch you keep, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life.But each one is tested by his own craving, dragged out and lured.THE THREAD
What I do not see, show me. If I have done crookedness, I will add no more.The same Hebrew word אָוֶן (ʾāwen, wrongdoing or trouble) appears here for “iniquity.” Job 34:32 gives that word a stark counterpart: wrongdoing can be named, then stopped.
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