What Does Job 10:17 Mean in the King James?
Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.
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 pressure is relentless: testimony is renewed, anger rises, and each changing force becomes another front against the speaker.
THE MEANING
The verse gives language to the moment when trouble returns with fresh evidence against you, anger seems to increase, and conflict keeps changing shape. It names the accumulated pressure as both accusation and siege, with no quiet interval between one form and the next.
THE ROOT
עֵדֶיךָ
ʿedeykha
GROWS FROM
עוד
ʿ-w-d
To return or repeat; in causative forms, to testify or attest.
The word for witnesses belongs to a family carrying the sense of return and repetition. That makes the testimony feel less like a single accusation than evidence brought back against the speaker again and again.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēd: Witness; one who testifies.
עֵד
This is the singular form behind the witnesses in the verse, giving the repeated pressure the shape of testimony.
ʿēdût: Testimony or witness.
עֵדוּת
The related word for testimony makes clear that the conflict is framed as a case being borne against the speaker.
תְּחַדֵּשׁ
techaddesh
GROWS FROM
חדש
ḥ-d-sh
To be new or fresh; to renew or make new.
“renewest” in this verse is techaddesh. Renewal here brings the witnesses back with fresh force; the accusation is made present again. The same root also names the new moon, whose return marks a recurring cycle.
ALSO GROWS
ḥādāsh: New or fresh.
חָדָשׁ
The word for newness shows how the testimony can feel freshly brought to bear, even as the pressure continues.
ḥōdesh: Month; new moon.
חֹדֶשׁ
Its cyclical sense echoes the repeated renewal of the witnesses.
חֲלִיפוֹת
ḥalifot
GROWS FROM
חלף
ḥ-l-f
To pass, change, exchange, or take the place of something.
The conflict does not hold one shape: its forms pass and are replaced. With the witnesses returning and the anger increasing, these changes make the opposition feel like a succession of fresh fronts.
ALSO GROWS
ḥālaf: To pass, change, or disappear.
חָלַף
The verb gives the changes their sense of movement, as one form of pressure passes into another.
ḥalîfâ: An exchange, change, or replacement.
חֲלִיפָה
This related noun makes the changing forms sound like a succession rather than one fixed attack.
THE PATTERN
Relentless pressure can take the form of many forces converging as one case against a person.
And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;THE THREAD
Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.Isaiah calls the people witnesses with the same Hebrew word family that Job hears as evidence against him. The shared root opens another direction for testimony: it can name what stands true about God as well as what feels arrayed against the speaker.
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