What Does Job 15:23 Mean in the King James?

He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

Job 15:23 · 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

He searches for bread while darkness already stands firm within reach, binding immediate lack to a future he believes is settled.

THE MEANING

The line paints a person moving from place to place for bread, asking where it is, while treating a dark day as close and certain. Need and dread occupy the same horizon: what sustains him is uncertain, while ruin feels prepared. The verse shows how the expectation of darkness can make even the search for daily bread feel part of the same threat.

THE ROOT

נָכוֹן

nakhon

GROWS FROM

כון

kun

To stand firm, be established, or be set in place.

The word rendered “ready” comes from ⁨כון⁩, which carries the sense of being firmly set or established. Darkness is presented as already prepared and close at hand, while bread is still something the wanderer cannot locate.

ALSO GROWS

hekin: Prepare or make ready.

הֵכִין

This branch makes the sense of preparation explicit: the dark day feels as though it has already been arranged.

makhon: A fixed place or foundation.

מָכוֹן

This branch echoes the firmness in “ready”: the darkness is imagined as having a settled place within reach.

THE PATTERN

Scripture often gives a coming day the texture of darkness, trouble, or night.

Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

Amos 5:18 · KJVThe coming day is pictured as darkness rather than the light its hearers expect.

That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

Zephaniah 1:15 · KJVThe repeated images give the approaching day the weight of darkness and distress.

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 · KJVThe day arrives under the image of night, making darkness part of how its nearness is felt.

THE THREAD

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

Psalm 57:7 · KJV

“Ready” in Job and “fixed” in this psalm translate the same Hebrew word, ⁨נָכוֹן⁩ (nakhon), from ⁨כון⁩ (kun): firmly set or established. The root can describe darkness fixed in expectation or a heart made firm.

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