What Does Job 1:1 Mean in the King James?
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse’s “perfect” is תָּם (tam, whole): integrity is a whole life whose direction stays straight, marked by awe toward God and turning from evil.
THE MEANING
Wholeness is not an unreachable score; it is a life with a straight direction, marked by awe toward God and turning away from evil. The verse lets you see integrity as congruence between what you hold in awe and what you refuse to make room for.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that integrity means never having a flaw: תָּם (tam, whole) names completeness, while the verse shows that wholeness through uprightness, awe, and turning from evil.
THE ROOT
תָּם
tam
GROWS FROM
תמם
t-m-m
To be complete or come to completion; wholeness.
English “perfect” can sound like faultlessness, while תָּם (tam, whole) points to integrity. Beside יָשָׁר (yashar, straight), it describes wholeness with a direct, unbent direction.
ALSO GROWS
tamim: Whole, complete, blameless.
תָּמִים
This related form shows the same idea of completeness in another word often rendered “perfect.”
tom: Integrity, completeness.
תֹּם
This noun makes the link between being whole and living with integrity explicit.
יָשָׁר
yashar
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
To be straight, level, or right.
“upright” in this verse is yashar. The verse sets “straight” beside “whole,” giving integrity a direction you can recognize. Wholeness here is not an abstract ideal; it has a directness to it.
ALSO GROWS
yosher: Straightness, uprightness.
יֹשֶׁר
This form names the quality that makes the verse’s idea of wholeness visible in conduct.
mesharim: Equity, uprightness, levelness.
מֵישָׁרִים
Its sense of levelness echoes the straight and undistorted direction expressed by “upright.”
יְרֵא
yere
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
When God is the one feared, ירא (yare, to stand in awe) carries reverence, not only alarm. The verse pairs that awe with turning from evil, so reverence appears as a lived orientation.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Awe, reverence, fear.
יִרְאָה
This noun holds the inward posture expressed by “feared God.”
nora: Awe-inspiring, fearsome.
נוֹרָא
This related form shows how the root can describe what evokes awe as well as the response of awe.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness takes shape as an undivided orientation toward God that is visible in straight conduct.
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.THE THREAD
Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.Job is called תָּם (tam, whole), and Deuteronomy uses תָּמִים (tamim, complete) from the same root תמם (t-m-m, to be complete). The shared seed opens “perfect with the LORD thy God” as integrity in relation, not a demand for a flawless record.
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