What Does Job 17:14 Mean in the King James?
I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
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
Job makes ruin intimate enough to call it father and to call the worm mother and sister.
THE MEANING
When the future feels closed, the reader can name corruption as father and the worm as mother and sister. The verse gives despair its exact, brutal language, making decay feel like kin rather than a distant thought.
THE ROOT
שַׁחַת
shachat
GROWS FROM
שחת
sh-ḥ-t
To ruin, destroy, or corrupt; the noun can also mean a pit or destruction.
The root holds corruption, ruin, and pit together. Job’s words make not only bodily decay but the grave’s downward pull feel like family.
ALSO GROWS
mashchit: Destroyer; one who brings ruin.
מַשְׁחִית
This branch gives destruction the shape of an active force, deepening the sense of ruin as more than a distant condition.
hishchit: He ruined, corrupted, or destroyed.
הִשְׁחִית
This verbal branch shows ruin in process; the word Job addresses can carry the sense of being brought down into destruction.
THE PATTERN
When death presses near, scripture turns the unseen threat into one that can be addressed by name.
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?THE THREAD
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.Genesis uses the same root for the earth’s corruption, carrying the sense of ruin and destruction. Job brings that ruin close enough to name it as family.
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