What Does Job 6:1 Mean?
But Job answered and said,
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
But Job answered and said,THE KEY
The Hebrew for “answered” also describes testimony, so Job’s reply begins as a witness.
THE MEANING
Job’s voice enters the exchange as an answer, and the text gives him the act of speaking as well as responding. The verse holds open a place for his own testimony.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעַן
wayyaʿan
GROWS FROM
ענה
To answer or respond; in legal speech, to testify.
“answered” in this verse is wayyaʿan. The same Hebrew root can describe answering and, in legal speech, testifying. Job’s reply becomes a place for his own witness to be heard.
ALSO GROWS
maʿaneh: Answer, reply.
מַעֲנֶה
This noun from the same root makes an answer a thing that can be offered and heard.
taʿaneh: You shall answer; in legal speech, testify.
תַּעֲנֶה
The form appears in the command against bearing false witness, linking an answer with the testimony a person gives.
THE PATTERN
A spoken answer gives the respondent’s own witness a place in the exchange.
You shall not answer against your neighbor as a witness of falsehood.So I have an answer for the one who taunts me, for I lean my weight on your word.But set apart the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a word about the hope within you, with gentleness and fear.THE THREAD
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said.Both verses use ענה (ʿanah, “answer or respond”): first Job answers, and later the LORD answers Job. The same root holds both voices within one exchange.
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