What Does Job 13:15 Mean in the King James?
Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
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
Job’s hope remains directed toward God while he argues his own case before God.
THE MEANING
The reader faces the possibility named here without the verse softening it: God may slay, and hope remains directed toward him. The reader’s own ways are also brought into God’s presence as a case to argue, so trust and protest occupy the same sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that trusting God requires silencing protest or calling harm good.
THE ROOT
אוֹכִיחַ
ʾôḵîaḥ
GROWS FROM
יכח
y-k-ḥ
To prove, decide, rebuke, or argue a case.
The word translated “maintain” carries the force of arguing or proving a case. Job brings his ways into God’s presence as something to be examined openly.
ALSO GROWS
hôḵîaḥ: to prove, rebuke, or argue
הוֹכִיחַ
This related verb shows the case-making force of the root behind Job’s words.
tôḵēḥāh: reproof, correction, or argument
תּוֹכֵחָה
This noun shows that the root can name speech that confronts and sets a matter straight, not only quiet resolve.
אֲיַחֵל
ʾăyaḥēl
GROWS FROM
יחל
y-ḥ-l
To wait, hope, or expect.
The word translated “trust” carries the sense of waiting or hoping toward God while the threat remains. It holds expectation and danger together without making the danger disappear.
ALSO GROWS
yāḥal: to wait or hope
יָחַל
This verb form makes clear that Job’s trust has the posture of waiting toward God.
tōḥelet: hope or expectation
תּוֹחֶלֶת
This related noun presents hope as expectation that continues over time, even when the outcome is uncertain.
THE PATTERN
Trust in God can hold direct, unfiltered speech about pain within the relationship.
Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.THE THREAD
I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.The same root יכח (y-k-ḥ, to argue or prove a case) appears in Job 23:4 as “arguments.” That echo gives “maintain mine own ways” the force of presenting a case openly in God’s presence.
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