What Does Job 15:22 Mean in the King James?
He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.
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 sword is not the only terror: darkness has narrowed the future until return itself cannot be trusted.
THE MEANING
Whenever darkness feels like a one-way passage, this verse names the fear that no return is possible and danger is already waiting at the edge. The wound is the loss of trust in a way back, not merely the presence of the sword. The image keeps the threat sharp; it does not make the sword harmless.
THE ROOT
יַאֲמִין
ya'amin
GROWS FROM
אמן
To be firm, steady, or supported; to trust or rely on.
“believeth” in this verse is ya'amin. The verse describes a person unable to stand on the possibility of return, not merely someone missing a fact. The root’s sense of firmness makes the break visible: danger has shaken the ground beneath trust.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Trust or steadfastness: leaning your weight on what holds.
אֱמוּנָה
It makes believing an act of reliance, the very capacity the verse says has collapsed.
amen: An affirmation that something is firm or established.
אָמֵן
The same root links trust with what a person can stand upon.
שׁוּב
shuv
GROWS FROM
שוב
To turn back or return.
The fear is not only being in darkness; it is losing the possibility of turning back from it. The same root can also speak of bringing something back or restoring it, holding return and restoration within one word family.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: A return or a turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
It keeps the verse’s central movement visible: the feared loss is the way back.
heshiv: To cause something to return or to restore it.
הֵשִׁיב
It shows that return can carry the sense of restoration, not merely reaching a place again.
THE PATTERN
Fear can make a threat feel already present and darkness feel like a passage with no return.
For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.THE THREAD
And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.Genesis uses the same root אמן (aman, firm or steady) in “believed” that Job uses in “believeth.” The contrast reveals belief as something a person can stand on: here, the possibility of returning from darkness no longer feels steady.
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