What Does Job 36:9 Mean?
Then he shows them their work and their rebellions, that they have grown strong.
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
Then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.THE KEY
The verse reveals that rebellion can grow powerful enough to shape the work you are shown.
THE MEANING
When pressure closes in, your actions and departures can be made visible to you. The verse names a rebellion that has grown strong: what begins as a breakaway can become a force that shapes your path. The revealing reaches both the deed and the power it has gathered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what grows powerful within you must therefore be right: the verse names that very strength as rebellion.
THE ROOT
פִּשְׁעֵיהֶם
pishʿêhem
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-sh-ʿ
To rebel, break away.
“rebellions” in this verse is pishʿêhem. The word translated “transgressions” carries the sense of rebellion, a breaking away. The verse sets that breakaway beside the claim that it has grown strong, showing rebellion as a force that can shape a person’s work.
ALSO GROWS
pāshaʿ: To rebel or break away.
פָּשַׁע
This verb opens “transgression” into a movement of separation, rather than a mere label for a wrong act.
peshaʿ: A rebellion or breakaway.
פֶּשַׁע
This noun names the departure the verse says has gathered strength.
יִתְגַּבָּרוּ
yitgabbāru
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
To be strong, prevail, or become mighty.
“grown strong” in this verse is yitgabbāru. The verb translated “exceeded” comes from the root for strength or prevailing. The verse pictures rebellion as something that can become powerful, so its growth itself is what gets brought into view.
ALSO GROWS
gibbôr: A mighty or powerful person.
גִּבּוֹר
This branch shows how the root names strength embodied in a person.
gevurah: Strength or power.
גְּבוּרָה
This branch makes the force behind “they have exceeded” explicit: the rebellion has gained might.
וַיַּגֵּד
wayyaggēd
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
To declare, make known, or set before someone.
“sheweth” in this verse is wayyaggēd. The verb for showing carries the sense of declaring something plainly. What is shown is set before the person: both the work and the rebellion behind it become visible.
ALSO GROWS
higgīd: To declare or make known.
הִגִּיד
This form emphasizes that the showing is an explicit naming, not a vague impression.
neged: What is in front of or set opposite someone.
נֶגֶד
This branch evokes the act of setting something before the eyes, bringing the hidden work into view.
THE PATTERN
The work and the hidden force behind it are brought into the open.
You set our crookedness before you, our hidden things into the light of your face.For God brings every making into judgment, upon every hidden thing, whether good or harm.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.THE THREAD
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.“Transgressions” here is פְּשָׁעִים (peshaʿim), meaning rebellions or breakaways, from the same root פשע (p-sh-ʿ) as Job’s word. Psalm 32:5 puts that rebellion into open speech and joins its acknowledgment with forgiveness, showing what can follow when the hidden thing is named.
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