What Does Job 36:5 Mean?
Behold, God is weighty, and does not cast off; he is mighty in strength of heart.
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
Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom.THE KEY
The verse measures divine might by its refusal to cast anyone aside.
THE MEANING
God is mighty now, and no one falls outside his regard. His strength is joined to the heart’s understanding, so power and care belong to the same character.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that you are too insignificant to matter to God dissolves here: the verse says God rejects no one.
THE ROOT
כַּבִּיר
kabir
GROWS FROM
כ־ב־ר
To become great or abundant; to increase in extent.
“weighty” in this verse is kabir. The word naming God’s might appears twice, and this root family can also describe multiplying. The verse presents that greatness as strength capacious enough to leave no one rejected.
ALSO GROWS
kabir: Great, mighty, abundant.
כַּבִּיר
This is the word repeated for God’s might in Job 36:5.
yakbir: Multiplies, increases.
יַכְבִּיר
In Job 35:16, the same root describes words increasing in number, showing the root’s sense of abundance.
יִמְאָס
yim’as
GROWS FROM
מ־א־ס
To reject, refuse, or cast aside.
“does not cast off” in this verse is yim’as. The verb names an act of rejection: God does not cast anyone aside. The verse holds that refusal inside its repeated claim of might.
ALSO GROWS
nim’as: Rejected or regarded as loathsome.
נִמְאַס
This form shows the state of being cast aside that the verse says God does not impose.
ma’us: Rejected, despised.
מָאוּס
This related form makes clear that the verb reaches beyond dislike to rejection.
לֵב
lev
GROWS FROM
ל־ב־ב
The heart or inner person, the center of thought and understanding.
The Hebrew phrase joins strength to lev, the heart or inward center. The KJV’s “wisdom” carries the sense of discernment rooted in that inner center.
ALSO GROWS
lev: Heart, inner self.
לֵב
This is the word represented by “wisdom” in the verse’s closing phrase.
levav: Heart, mind, inner understanding.
לֵבָב
This related form shows how Hebrew locates thought and understanding in the heart.
THE PATTERN
Divine greatness is shown by power that does not cast the overlooked aside.
Though the LORD is lifted high, he sees the low ones, and the lofty he perceives from afar.Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins, and not one of them slips from God's sight?For there is no partiality with God.THE THREAD
And Job opens his mouth in vapor; he multiplies words without knowledge.The verb translated “multiplieth” comes from the same כ־ב־ר family as “mighty” in this verse. Its sense of increase or abundance gives “might” a scale, while Job 36:5 reveals that this power does not cast anyone aside.
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