What Does Job 13:10 Mean in the King James?
He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.
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 exposes the hidden act of lifting one person’s face above another, and says that secrecy does not shield it from reproof.
THE MEANING
When you quietly favor one person over another, that preference still stands exposed to reproof. The verse’s image is exact: one face is lifted above the rest.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that bias becomes harmless or invisible when it stays secret is undone here; concealment does not make partiality impartial.
THE ROOT
תִּשָּׂאוּ פָנִים
tissa'u panim
GROWS FROM
נשא
lift, carry, bear
The phrase rendered “accept persons” is literally “lift faces”: partiality raises one person’s standing above another’s. The image makes concealed bias visible as an act of elevation, not merely a private opinion.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: lift, carry, bear
נָשָׂא
The same root spans carrying and raising; here a face is lifted into preference.
nasi: chief, prince
נָשִׂיא
Traditionally linked to one raised up, echoing how partiality elevates a favored person’s standing.
בַּסֵּתֶר
basseter
GROWS FROM
סתר
hide, conceal
“secretly” in this verse is basseter. The verse locates the lifting of faces in a hidden place. Concealment describes where the favoritism happens, not whether it counts.
ALSO GROWS
seter: secret, hiding place
סֵתֶר
This noun from the same root gives the concealed setting named in the verse.
mistar: hiding place, secret shelter
מִסְתָּר
The same root’s language of a hidden place echoes the verse’s contrast between concealed conduct and reproof.
THE PATTERN
When a face is lifted above the case, judgment is distorted, whether the favoritism is hidden or public.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.THE THREAD
For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:Job’s “accept persons” and Deuteronomy’s “regardeth not persons” share the Hebrew image of lifting faces. Deuteronomy says the LORD does not raise one face above another, clarifying why concealed face lifting meets reproof.
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