What Does Job 36:31 Mean?
For by these he judges the peoples; he gives food to the full.
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
For by them judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance.THE KEY
Judgment and daily bread arrive through the same rain-bearing force.
THE MEANING
The clouds and waters that humble human control also carry the means of food. Judgment and provision move through the same weather, so what exposes human dependence also sustains the body.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a force that confronts or judges can only take life; here that same power also gives nourishment in abundance.
THE ROOT
יָדִין
yādîn
GROWS FROM
דִּין
dîn
Judge or decide a case; the root can also carry the sense of contending or pleading.
“judgeth” in this verse is yādîn. The word holds judgment as an act of deciding a case, not merely condemning. Its root also forms the name Dan, linking judgment with a named identity.
ALSO GROWS
dîn: Judgment or a case
דִּין
It shows the legal, discerning sense carried by the root behind “judgeth.”
Dān: “He judged”; also the name Dan
דָּן
Genesis 30:6 connects the name Dan with the act of God judging Rachel.
לְמַכְבִּיר
le-makhbîr
GROWS FROM
כָּבַר
kābar
Be great or numerous; the word family can describe what is mighty or abundant.
“abundance” in this verse is le-makhbîr. The word for abundant food shares its word family with the word for “mighty” nearby in Job 36:5. Here greatness takes a form people can eat: plentiful provision.
ALSO GROWS
kabîr: Mighty; great in strength
כַּבִּיר
Job 36:5 uses this word for God’s might, linking greatness with the abundance named here.
makhbîr: Abundant; in abundance
מַכְבִּיר
This form describes the measure in which food is given in Job 36:31.
אֹכֶל
ʾōkhel
GROWS FROM
אָכַל
ʾākhal
Eat or consume.
The word joins the food given with the act of eating: provision is something tangible and consumable. The verse’s abundance reaches the body as nourishment.
ALSO GROWS
ʾākhal: To eat
אָכַל
It names the act for which the given food is meant.
maʾakhāl: Food; something to eat
מַאֲכָל
It carries the same root into the thing consumed, joining nourishment to the act of eating.
THE PATTERN
Rain is a material force through which correction and provision can both arrive.
He brings it, whether for the rod, or for his land, or for faithful love.And I will give you the rain of your land in its season, the first rain and the late rain, so that you may gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil.Yet he did not leave himself without witness, doing good, giving you rain from heaven and seasons that bear fruit, filling your hearts with food and gladness.THE THREAD
And Rachel said, God has judged me, and has also heard and responded to my voice, and has given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dan, judgment.Job’s יָדִין (yādîn, “judgeth”) and Genesis’ דָּנַנִי (dānanî, “hath judged me”) share the root דִּין (dîn, “judge or decide a case”). Genesis carries that judgment into the name דָּן (Dān, “he judged”). In both verses, judgment stands beside a gift.
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