What Does Job 10:4 Mean in the King James?
Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
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 makes the limits of the one who sees the real question: does divine sight share the mortal way of seeing?
THE MEANING
You ask whether the one examining you sees with fleshly eyes, or sees as a mortal does. The question presses on whether judgment can see beyond the limits of human perception. It remains a direct challenge, not an answer.
THE ROOT
תִּרְאֶה
tirʾeh
GROWS FROM
ראה
To see, look, or perceive.
“seest” in this verse is tirʾeh. The Hebrew repeats ראה (raʾah, see) in the question about both human and divine sight. Its branch מַרְאֶה (marʾeh, appearance) brings the issue into focus: is the seeing limited to what appears to a human observer?
ALSO GROWS
marʾeh: Appearance, sight
מַרְאֶה
This branch points to what can be seen, the surface that the question asks whether divine perception shares.
roʾeh: Seer, one who sees
רֹאֶה
The same root names both the act of seeing and the one who sees, keeping the question on the nature of the observer as well as the gaze.
אֱנוֹשׁ
ʾenosh
GROWS FROM
אנש
To be frail or mortal; the root also carries a sense of grievous weakness.
The word translated “man” is אֱנוֹשׁ (ʾenosh), which can mean mortal humanity. Its root’s branch אֱנוּשׁ (ʾanush, gravely ill or incurable) echoes human frailty, sharpening Job’s question about whether divine sight is as limited as mortal sight.
ALSO GROWS
ʾenosh: A human being, mortal
אֱנוֹשׁ
It names the finite kind of seeing Job asks whether God shares.
ʾanush: Grievously ill, incurable
אֱנוּשׁ
This branch carries the root’s language of vulnerability and underscores the contrast with divine sight.
THE PATTERN
Divine seeing reaches beyond the limits of human perception.
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.THE THREAD
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.Job asks whether God sees as a mortal sees; Samuel’s verse answers with the same Hebrew root ראה (raʾah, see): “the LORD seeth not as man seeth.” The shared root turns Job’s question toward a distinction between human sight and the gaze that sees the heart.
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