What Does Job 36:6 Mean?
He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives judgment to the bowed.
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
He preserveth not the life of the wicked: but giveth right to the poor.THE KEY
The poor receive not charity but mishpat, the judgment that gives their claim standing.
THE MEANING
The verse says God does not keep the wicked alive, while giving the poor their right. Poverty does not erase the afflicted person’s claim: they receive a judgment that recognizes their case. The two halves hold both outcomes in view, life is not secured by wickedness, and justice is not denied to the poor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being poor means having no claim before God.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
Shaphat: to judge or decide a case.
“Right” can sound like an entitlement, but mishpat is judgment that recognizes and sets a claim in order. Here, that judgment is given to the poor: their case is not left to the powerful to decide.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: to judge, decide
שָׁפַט
The verb shows mishpat as an act of judgment, not merely a possession.
shofet: judge
שֹׁפֵט
The person who judges embodies the authority to hear and decide a case.
mishpatim: judgments, ordinances
מִשְׁפָּטִים
The plural carries the same root into decisions that order a community’s claims.
עֲנִיִּים
aniyyim
GROWS FROM
ענה
Anah: to be afflicted, bowed down, or brought low.
“bowed” in this verse is aniyyim. The word points beyond lack of money to people who are pressed down or afflicted. That makes the verse’s pairing precise: mishpat is given to those whose low position could leave their claim unheard.
ALSO GROWS
ani: poor, afflicted
עָנִי
This singular form carries the same image of a person brought low.
anah: to afflict, humble
עָנָה
The verb reveals the condition behind the word: being pressed down or made low.
יְחַיֶּה
yechayyeh
GROWS FROM
חיה
Chayah: to live or keep alive.
“does not keep alive” in this verse is yechayyeh. The phrase translated “preserveth … the life” uses the verb “keep alive.” Set beside the judgment given to the poor, it makes the verse speak of both survival and justice: neither is simply secured by wickedness or denied by poverty.
ALSO GROWS
chai: living, alive
חַי
This branch names the state of being alive that the verb expresses.
chayyim: life
חַיִּים
The noun shares the root and makes the life at stake explicit.
THE PATTERN
God’s justice reaches people whom power leaves without standing.
He executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and a cloak.I know that the LORD takes up the case of the bowed ones, and the judgment of those in want.Hear, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose the emptied ones of this world, rich in trust, and heirs of the governance that he promised to those who love him?THE THREAD
For the needy is not always forgotten; the hope of the bowed ones does not perish forever.The word for “poor” in both verses comes from ענה (anah), carrying the sense of being afflicted or brought low. Job says the afflicted receive mishpat; this Psalm says their hope is not forgotten or lost.
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