What Does Job 1:13 Mean in the King James?
And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
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 word for drinking shares its root with מִשְׁתֶּה (mishteh), a feast, so this ordinary family gathering carries the shape of a banquet just before catastrophe breaks in.
THE MEANING
You are inside an unremarkable day: a family is eating, drinking wine, and gathering at the eldest brother’s home. Nothing in the scene looks like a warning; its ordinary joy exists alongside life’s vulnerability to sudden change.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a moment that feels safe is proof that nothing can interrupt it.
THE ROOT
וְשֹׁתִים
wəšōtîm
GROWS FROM
שתה
sh-t-h
to drink
The verb for drinking shares its root with מִשְׁתֶּה (mishteh), meaning a feast or banquet. The English lists eating and drinking as separate actions; the shared root lets the drinking also name the feast-shaped character of this family gathering.
ALSO GROWS
mishteh: feast, banquet
מִשְׁתֶּה
This noun from the same root shows how drinking can name a whole shared gathering, not merely an action at the table.
shatah: drink
שָׁתָה
This verb is the root’s basic action, present here as part of the siblings’ ordinary meal.
הַבְּכוֹר
habbəkhōr
GROWS FROM
בכר
b-k-r
to be firstborn; to be first in order or yield
The house is identified through its firstborn. The same root names both the firstborn and first fruits, linking the eldest to what comes first in a family’s order and harvest.
ALSO GROWS
bekhorah: birthright
בְּכוֹרָה
This branch names the status or share associated with being firstborn, deepening the family-order carried by “eldest.”
bikkurim: first fruits
בִּכּוּרִים
This branch uses the same root for the first yield, echoing the sense of what comes first.
THE PATTERN
Ordinary ease can continue even as sudden loss approaches or arrives.
While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.THE THREAD
And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.The word translated “feasted” is מִשְׁתֶּה (mishteh), from the same שׁתה (sh-t-h) root as “drinking” here. This was a recurring rhythm of shared family life, which makes the interruption feel sharper.
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