What Does Job 13:5 Mean in the King James?

O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.

Job 13:5 · 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.

THE KEY

Here, silence is not the absence of wisdom; it is the wisdom itself.

THE MEANING

When someone meets your pain with explanations that miss what you are living, this verse names silence as wiser than another confident answer. It treats restraint as the recognition that speech can outrun understanding.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that having an answer ready proves wisdom; sometimes restraint reveals more understanding than speech.

THE ROOT

הַחֲרֵשׁ תַּחֲרִישׁוּן

haḥăreš taḥărîšûn

GROWS FROM

חרשׁ

ḥ-r-š

Be silent, keep quiet.

“hold your peace” in this verse is haḥăreš taḥărîšûn. The Hebrew repeats ⁨חרשׁ⁩: an infinitive absolute followed by a verb from the same root, intensifying the sense to “be utterly silent.” The English phrase spreads this force across several words, while the Hebrew centers silence as the action that would count as wisdom here.

ALSO GROWS

haḥăreš: Being silent, utterly quiet.

הַחֲרֵשׁ

This form intensifies the following verb from the same root, giving the phrase its force of complete silence.

ʾaḥărîš: I will be silent; I will hold my tongue.

אַחֲרִישׁ

Job uses the same root in Job 6:24 when he says he will hold his tongue as he receives instruction.

THE PATTERN

When speech outruns understanding, restraint can reveal more wisdom than another answer.

Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

Proverbs 17:28 · KJVSilence can display the understanding that words alone may only claim.

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

Ecclesiastes 3:7 · KJVWisdom includes recognizing that silence, like speech, has its fitting time.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

James 1:19 · KJVSlowing speech makes room to hear before an answer hardens into anger.

THE THREAD

Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

Job 6:24 · KJV

“Hold my tongue” uses the same Hebrew root ⁨חרשׁ⁩ as “hold your peace” here. In Job 6:24, silence makes room for correction; in Job 13:5, it would be the friends’ wisdom.

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