What Does Job 12:14 Mean in the King James?
Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
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 Hebrew makes the shutting active and the opening impossible: he closes over a person, and no way back out appears.
THE MEANING
God can tear down what cannot be rebuilt and close over a person so that no opening remains. The verse speaks now as a severe limit on human control: no human power can compel an opening where he shuts.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that every loss can be repaired by human effort, or every closed passage forced open, is undone here.
THE ROOT
יִסְגֹּר
yisgor
GROWS FROM
סגר
s-g-r
To close, shut, or enclose.
“shutteth up” in this verse is yisgor. The verb יִסְגֹּר (yisgor, “he shuts”) belongs to a word family that includes both confinement and handing someone over. The closure here is not merely a door being closed; it is a person enclosed with no opening named afterward.
ALSO GROWS
misgar: Enclosure or prison.
מִסְגָּר
This branch gives the verb’s closure a concrete form: a person held within bounds.
hisgir: Handed over or delivered up.
הִסְגִּיר
The same root can describe placing someone into another’s custody, sharpening the force of being shut in.
יִפָּתֵחַ
yippateach
GROWS FROM
פתח
p-t-ḥ
To open.
יִפָּתֵחַ (yippateach, “be opened”) is passive: the verse denies that an opening comes to pass. This root also names the entrance itself and the key that opens it, so the absence is a denied way through.
ALSO GROWS
petaḥ: Entrance or opening.
פֶּתַח
The word makes the missing opening a real passage, not an abstract possibility.
maphtēaḥ: Key.
מַפְתֵּחַ
A key belongs to the same root because it opens; this word-family points toward access that is withheld here.
THE PATTERN
Final access rests with the one who holds authority to close and open.
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;THE THREAD
And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew roots found here: סגר (s-g-r, “shut”) and פתח (p-t-ḥ, “open”). Job names a closure with no opening; Isaiah adds the image of the key, making the authority over access explicit.
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