What Does Job 13:20 Mean in the King James?
Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.
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The two things are a withdrawn hand and lifted dread, the conditions Job names for staying before God’s face instead of hiding.
THE MEANING
You can want an answer and still feel driven to hide from the presence you are addressing. This prayer names the conditions for remaining present: the hand withdrawn and dread no longer imposed. With the threat eased, speech can move both ways: one can call and the other answer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that reverence requires silent endurance: Job names the threat and asks for it to stop before he can remain present.
THE ROOT
אֶסָּתֵר
ʾesater
GROWS FROM
סתר
To hide or conceal; to keep out of sight.
“hide myself” in this verse is ʾesater. This root links a person’s withdrawal with whatever is concealed or serves as a hiding place. Job’s request is not to escape God’s presence, but to remain in it without having to disappear from fear.
ALSO GROWS
mistār: Hiding place, secret place
מִסְתָּר
The root can name the place of concealment as well as the act of hiding, giving Job’s refusal to hide a sense of leaving shelter.
nistār: Hidden, concealed
נִסְתָּר
This branch describes the state of what is out of sight; Job’s words reverse that state by choosing to remain visible before God.
מִפָּנֶיךָ
mippāneḵā
GROWS FROM
פנה
To turn or face toward.
The Hebrew wording says “from before your face,” where the KJV’s “from thee” can sound like simple distance. Job is asking to stay in the encounter, with the source of dread removed.
ALSO GROWS
pānîm: Face, presence
פָּנִים
This is the face-language at the center of Job’s request: he wants to remain before God rather than hide from that presence.
liphnei: Before, in the presence of
לִפְנֵי
This related form makes the spatial sense clear: the question is whether Job can stay before the face he is addressing.
THE PATTERN
Fear and exposure draw concealment, while bringing what is hidden into God’s presence opens a path to speaking and cleansing.
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.THE THREAD
Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.In both verses, “hide” comes from סתר (satar, “to hide or conceal”). Job asks not to hide from God’s face; the psalm asks that God not hide that face from the speaker, making the shared root audible in both directions.
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