What Does Job 9:31 Mean?
Then you immerse me in the pit, and my own garments recoil from me.
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
Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.THE KEY
The plunge reaches so deep that even the speaker’s covering becomes part of the rejection.
THE MEANING
You can feel plunged into ruin so completely that even what covers you seems to recoil. The image leaves no clean distance from the pit: the speaker’s own clothes carry the repulsion back against him.
THE ROOT
תִּטְבְּלֵנִי
titbeleni
GROWS FROM
טבל
ṭ-b-l
to dip or immerse
“immerse” in this verse is titbeleni. The same root describes dipping a garment in blood and immersing in water. Here the plunge is total: the speaker imagines himself immersed in the pit, with his clothes drawn into the image too.
ALSO GROWS
wayyitbelu: they dipped
וַיִּטְבְּלוּ
In Genesis 37:31, Joseph’s coat is dipped in blood, making the garment carry a visible sign of what has happened.
wayyitbol: he immersed himself
וַיִּטְבֹּל
In 2 Kings 5:14, Naaman immerses himself in the Jordan; the same root names full immersion rather than a surface touch.
תִּעֲבֻנִי
ti’avuni
GROWS FROM
תעב
t-ʿ-b
to regard as detestable; to abhor
“recoil from” in this verse is ti’avuni. This verb belongs to the same word family as תּוֹעֵבָה (toʿevah), “an abomination” or “detestable thing.” The clothes do not merely look dirty: the language makes them seem to reject the person they cover.
ALSO GROWS
toʿevah: abomination; detestable thing
תּוֹעֵבָה
This noun shows the force of the root: the clothes’ response is framed as revulsion, not just visible soiling.
toʿev: detestable; one regarded with abhorrence
תּוֹעֵב
This related form puts the same quality on a person or thing, sharpening the image of the garments turning against their wearer.
THE PATTERN
When a condition reaches beneath appearances, the outer covering can carry its evidence rather than shield from it.
And they took Joseph's coat, and slaughtered a kid of the goats, and immersed the coat in the blood.And deliver others with fear, snatching them out of the fire, hating even the tunic stained by the flesh.THE THREAD
And they took Joseph's coat, and slaughtered a kid of the goats, and immersed the coat in the blood.Both verses use טבל (taval, “dip” or “immerse”) and place clothing in the image. Joseph’s dipped coat carries blood as a visible sign; in Job, the speaker imagines immersion so complete that his own garments seem to turn against him.
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