What Does Job 8:1 Mean?
Then Bildad the Shuhite 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
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,THE KEY
The verse makes speech relational before it becomes content: an answer is already shaped by what it meets.
THE MEANING
A response takes shape here, and the words that follow arrive within an exchange. Their meaning depends on what they answer and what they reveal.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעַן
wayyaʿan
GROWS FROM
ענה
to answer, respond
“answered” in this verse is wayyaʿan. This root marks the speech as a response, with a preceding voice built into the act. Its noun מַעֲנֶה (maʿaneh), “answer” or “response,” carries that same relation into the name of the reply.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoneh: one who answers; answering
עֹנֶה
The participle keeps the focus on a voice responding, rather than speech standing alone.
maʿaneh: answer; response
מַעֲנֶה
This noun appears in Proverbs 15:1, where the character of an answer can turn anger aside.
THE PATTERN
An answer takes its place inside an exchange, where what came before shapes what follows.
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,And after they had fallen silent, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, give ear to me.The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.THE THREAD
A soft answer turns away the burning, but words of pain stir up the nostrils.Proverbs uses מַעֲנֶה (maʿaneh), from the same root ענה as “answered” here. The shared root connects an answer to its force: a reply can turn heat away.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us