What Does Job 8:21 Mean?
Until he fills your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.
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
Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing.THE KEY
Joy arrives here as fullness given to the mouth, until it becomes sound.
THE MEANING
You are addressed with an image of laughter filling your mouth and a shout of joy rising at your lips. Joy takes shape in your voice, where it can be heard.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that sorrow has the last word over your voice.
THE ROOT
יְמַלֵּא
yemallēʾ
GROWS FROM
מלא
To be full; to fill.
The verse says someone fills your mouth with laughter; joy is received as fullness before it becomes your voice. The root holds together the act of filling and the state of being full.
ALSO GROWS
maleʾ: Be full; be filled.
מָלֵא
The same root names the state of fullness that the verse gives your mouth.
milleʾ: Fill; make full.
מִלֵּא
This form emphasizes bringing something to fullness, as laughter fills the mouth here.
תְּרוּעָה
teruʿah
GROWS FROM
רוע
To raise a cry; shout aloud.
“shouting” in this verse is teruʿah. The Hebrew word translated “rejoicing” carries the sound of a shout. Joy here is audible: it rises at the lips as a cry, not only as an inward feeling.
ALSO GROWS
hāriʿû: Shout aloud; raise a cry.
הָרִיעוּ
This verb makes clear that the root describes voiced expression, not a private state.
teruʿat milḥamah: Battle alarm; war cry.
תְּרוּעַת מִלְחָמָה
The same root can sound an alarm or a jubilant cry; the surrounding words give the shout its tone.
שְׂחוֹק
śeḥoq
GROWS FROM
שחק
To laugh, play, or make sport.
The laughter word shares its root with play and making sport, giving the image a quality of open liveliness. English “laughing” can sound like a mere reaction; the Hebrew root also evokes playful expression.
ALSO GROWS
śaḥaq: Laugh; play; make sport.
שָׂחַק
The verb shows laughter as an embodied action, not only an emotion.
miśḥaq: Play; sport; amusement.
מִשְׂחָק
This related form widens the verse’s laughter into the language of play and lively expression.
THE PATTERN
The voice can move from weeping into audible laughter, with joy experienced as fullness.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with a ringing cry. Then they said among the nations, The LORD has grown great in doing with these.A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to leap.Flourishing are the hungering now, for you will be filled. Flourishing are the weeping now, for you will laugh.THE THREAD
Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with a ringing cry. Then they said among the nations, The LORD has grown great in doing with these.Both verses use שְׂחוֹק (śeḥoq, “laughter”) and picture laughter filling the mouth. The shared root reveals a recurring image: joy becomes audible when the mouth is filled.
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