What Does Job 16:13 Mean in the King James?
His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
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
This is violence that does not stop at the skin: it cleaves the body’s interior and spills bitterness onto the ground.
THE MEANING
You hear a first-person cry of archers surrounding the speaker, an assailant splitting his kidneys, withholding pity, and pouring out his gall onto the ground. The violence reaches the body’s hidden interior, then becomes a visible spill of bitterness.
THE ROOT
יְפַלַּח
yefallach
GROWS FROM
פלח
To cleave, split through, or pierce.
“cleaveth” in this verse is yefallach. The verb פָּלַח (palach, to cleave or pierce) also describes an arrow striking through the liver and someone cleaving wood. That shared action makes the verse’s inner injury concrete: the body is split open by force.
ALSO GROWS
yefallach: Pierces or strikes through; Proverbs 7:23 uses this verb for a dart striking through the liver.
יְפַלַּח
The same verb links the kidneys in Job to another image of an arrow entering a body’s vulnerable interior.
poleach: One who cleaves; Psalm 141:7 uses it for cleaving wood on the earth.
פֹּלֵחַ
The word carries the physical motion of splitting into Job’s description of the wound.
מְרֵרָתִי
mererati
GROWS FROM
מרר
To be bitter or to make bitter.
The gall comes from מרר (marar, to be bitter or make bitter), a root also used for making life bitter and for bitter herbs. The verse makes bitterness bodily: it is poured from within and lands on the ground.
ALSO GROWS
vayemareru: They made bitter; Exodus 1:14 uses it of bitter hardship.
וַיְמָרְרוּ
The root connects the gall’s bitterness to suffering made bitter.
merorim: Bitter herbs; Exodus 12:8.
מְרֹרִים
The same root carries bitterness as a taste, giving the gall’s image a physical sharpness.
THE PATTERN
Violence is named by tracing where force enters the vulnerable body.
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.THE THREAD
He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.Both verses use כִּלְיוֹתַי (kilyotai, my kidneys or reins) for the same inner organs. Lamentations adds arrows entering them, opening Job’s image of cleaving into a more explicit picture of force reaching inside.
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