What Does Job 16:11 Mean in the King James?
God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
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 word translated “delivered” also carries the sense of being shut in, so the verse makes betrayal feel like confinement.
THE MEANING
When you are exposed to people who do harm, the wound can feel like more than their violence: it can feel as though God has shut you into their reach. The verse gives that accusation its full force and leaves its terror unresolved.
THE ROOT
סָגַר
sāgar
GROWS FROM
סגר
To shut, close, or confine; in a causative form, to hand someone over.
English “delivered” can sound like a transfer without texture; סָגַר first means to close or shut, then extends to handing someone over to custody. The verse holds both ideas together: the speaker is placed in the wicked’s power and enclosed within it.
ALSO GROWS
sāgar: To shut or close something; to confine.
סָגַר
This is the concrete image beneath “delivered”: the speaker is shut into a situation, not simply moved between places.
misgeret: A frame or boundary; an enclosing structure.
מִסְגֶּרֶת
This related word carries the root’s image of enclosure, sharpening how the wicked’s hands can feel like a boundary around the speaker.
THE PATTERN
To be delivered into someone’s hands is to be placed within the reach of their power.
And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:THE THREAD
And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.Psalm 31:8 uses the same Hebrew root, סָגַר (sāgar, shut or hand over), in a direct opposite claim: God has not shut the speaker into the enemy’s hand. Its image of a large room opens the contrast with Job’s sense of confinement.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us