What Does Job 13:11 Mean in the King James?
Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?
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 calls God’s “excellency” his elevation, while the verse’s second image makes dread fall upon those before him.
THE MEANING
God’s greatness reaches you as fear; it does not remain a safe idea held above you. The question places you beneath that same dread, so invoking divine majesty cannot leave you untouched by its force.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that God’s majesty can be invoked against someone else without reaching the one who invokes it.
THE ROOT
שְׂאֵתוֹ
śəʾētô
GROWS FROM
נשׂא
Lift, carry, bear; שְׂאֵת (śəʾēt) means elevation or dignity.
The word rendered “excellency” belongs to the Hebrew family of lifting and carrying, and here means his elevation. The verse gives that height an immediate effect: it terrifies, and dread falls upon the people addressed.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This verb is the root’s basic action and makes the elevation in “excellency” concrete.
nāśîʾ: A leader or prince; one raised to a position.
נָשִׂיא
This branch shows how lifting becomes rank or elevation.
maśśāʾ: A burden or load; something carried.
מַשָּׂא
The same root spans what is raised up and what is borne, giving the verse’s elevation a weighty force.
וּפַחְדּוֹ
ûp̄aḥdô
GROWS FROM
פחד
Dread or fear; the verb means to dread or be afraid.
The word names dread as something that falls upon the people addressed, not merely an idea they hold about God. The same root can name both the inward act of fearing and the terror that confronts them.
ALSO GROWS
pāḥad: To dread or be afraid.
פָּחַד
The verb names the inward response that the verse says God’s elevation brings.
paḥad Yiṣḥāq: “The Dread of Isaac” (Genesis 31:42).
פַּחַד יִצְחָק
The same noun appears in a phrase referring to God, linking dread with the divine presence invoked here.
THE PATTERN
When divine majesty is encountered, fear becomes an immediate condition of the one standing before it.
Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:THE THREAD
For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.Job 3:25 uses the same fear-root, פחד (pachad), for what has come upon Job. Here that root names the dread that falls on the people invoking God’s majesty, turning fear into a force they must face.
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