What Does Job 13:27 Mean in the King James?

Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.

Job 13:27 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The feet are not only stopped; the paths and footprints are kept under watch, so the confinement reaches every movement.

THE MEANING

Here the verse names what it is to be held in place while every route is watched and each footprint marked. The pressure is not only immobility; it is having no movement beyond the watcher’s notice.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that being watched necessarily feels like being cared for: attention can also be experienced as confinement.

THE ROOT

תִּשְׁמֹר

tishmor

GROWS FROM

שׁמר

sh-m-r

guard, keep, watch

The word translated “lookest narrowly” comes from ⁨שׁמר⁩ (shamar), meaning “guard, keep, watch.” With the feet in stocks and the paths under watch, keeping takes on the feel of custody: the same attention that can preserve can also confine.

ALSO GROWS

shomer: keeper, watchman

שֹׁמֵר

The watchman branch makes the active, vigilant quality of the watching visible.

mishmeret: guard, charge, custody

מִשְׁמֶרֶת

This branch brings out the sense of being held under watch, which sharpens the verse’s image of restraint.

THE PATTERN

When every step is watched and counted, attention can feel like restraint.

For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?

Job 14:16 · KJVSteps are counted and the same kind of watchfulness reaches what Job does, extending scrutiny beyond the path.

Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

Psalm 139:3 · KJVThe path and even the moment of lying down are fully in view, echoing Job’s sense that no movement goes unobserved.

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.

Proverbs 5:21 · KJVEvery way and step stands before the LORD’s attention, giving the verse’s image of watched movement a wider scriptural echo.

THE THREAD

For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?

Job 14:16 · KJV

Job 14:16 repeats ⁨שׁמר⁩ (shamar, “guard, keep, watch”) beside counted steps. The watch reaches from Job’s paths to his sin, making the scrutiny feel less like a passing look and more like a life tracked in detail.

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