What Does Job 14:3 Mean in the King James?

And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

Job 14:3 · 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

God’s gaze does not merely notice the fragile person; it brings that person into judgment.

THE MEANING

You are seen in your fragility, and the gaze brings you into direct encounter with judgment. That attention is not presented as comfort; it feels exposing, and the question lets the pressure remain.

THE ROOT

פָּקַחְתָּ

pāqaḥtā

GROWS FROM

פקח

p-q-ḥ

To open, especially the eyes; to make seeing possible.

Here, “open thine eyes upon” describes a gaze fixed on someone, with the force of scrutiny. The same root can describe eyes receiving sight, linking God’s attention with the act of opening perception.

ALSO GROWS

tippāqaḥnāh: Shall be opened; used of blind eyes receiving sight.

תִּפָּקַחְנָה

The same root describes sight as something opened, making the gaze in this verse part of a wider language of seeing.

piqqēaḥ: Seeing, or one who sees.

פִּקֵּחַ

This related form names the open-eyed person, connecting the act of opening eyes with the capacity to see.

תָּבִיא

tāḇîʾ

GROWS FROM

בוא

b-w-ʾ

To come or enter; in the causative form, to bring or cause to enter.

The verb translated “bringest” has causative force: God causes the speaker to come into judgment. The wording makes the encounter a movement into the case, not simply a verdict delivered from a distance.

ALSO GROWS

bôʾ: To come or enter.

בּוֹא

The base verb carries the sense of arrival that remains inside “bringest.”

māḇôʾ: An entrance or entry.

מְבוֹא

This related noun gives the root a spatial sense: being brought means entering into a place or encounter.

מִשְׁפָּט

mishpāṭ

GROWS FROM

שפט

sh-p-ṭ

To judge or decide a case.

This root belongs to the language of adjudicating a case and determining what is right. With “with thee,” judgment is not an abstract verdict: the speaker is brought into an encounter with the one who judges.

ALSO GROWS

shāphaṭ: To judge or decide a case.

שָׁפַט

This verb shows the action at the root of “judgment.”

shōphēṭ: A judge, one who adjudicates.

שֹׁפֵט

This related form makes the encounter personal: judgment involves the one who decides the case.

THE PATTERN

The divine gaze reaches the vulnerable person with searching attention and brings life into the open.

And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?

Job 7:18 · KJVThe question likewise presents divine attention as continuous scrutiny of a vulnerable human being.

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.

Psalm 139:1 · KJVThe searching gaze reaches the speaker personally and leaves nothing outside its attention.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Hebrews 4:13 · KJVThis verse makes explicit the exposure implied here: all things stand open before the one with whom they have to do.

THE THREAD

To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

Isaiah 42:7 · KJV

Isaiah’s “open” uses the same Hebrew root (⁨פקח⁩, pāqaḥ, “open”) as Job’s “open thine eyes.” The root links God’s searching gaze with eyes opened to sight, while Isaiah shows that this opening can also accompany people being brought out of confinement.

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