What Does Job 2:5 Mean in the King James?
But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
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
Even as the accusation predicts a curse, its Hebrew verb is barak, “bless”: the test is whether pain can turn Job’s blessing against God.
THE MEANING
This verse brings bodily vulnerability to the center of the accusation: when pain reaches bone and flesh, blessing can be pressed toward a curse against God. But this is the Adversary’s prediction, not a verdict; the verse leaves open whether suffering gets to determine the words you speak toward God.
THE ROOT
יְבָרֲכֶךָּ
yevārĕkhekā
GROWS FROM
ב־ר־ך
b-r-k
To bless; associated with bending the knee.
The form yevarekhekha comes from barak, the same verb for blessing, though here it carries the idiomatic force of “curse.” The root’s association with the knee makes the predicted reversal more than a change in vocabulary: the pressure is imagined as turning blessing toward accusation.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: Knee.
בֶּרֶךְ
The knee carries the bodily image associated with this root, placing the posture of blessing beside the threatened body.
berakhah: Blessing.
בְּרָכָה
This is the same blessing-language that stands beneath the accusation’s prediction of a curse.
וְגַע
wĕgaʿ
GROWS FROM
נ־ג־ע
n-g-ʿ
To touch, reach, strike, or afflict.
This root reaches beyond contact: it can describe being struck or afflicted, and negaʿ names a plague. The requested touch is the route by which the accusation expects physical pain to reach Job.
ALSO GROWS
negaʿ: Plague or affliction.
נֶגַע
The same root connects touching with the affliction the touch is meant to bring.
nāgūaʿ: Stricken or afflicted.
נָגוּעַ
This branch shows how the root can name the state produced when contact becomes harm.
שְׁלַח
shĕlaḥ
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ח
sh-l-ḥ
To send forth, release, or stretch out.
“put forth” in this verse is shĕlaḥ. The phrase begins with shĕlaḥ, send the hand forth. The hand is treated as something sent toward the body, linking reach, agency, and affliction in one movement.
ALSO GROWS
shaliaḥ: Messenger; one sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
The messenger is defined by being sent, as the hand here is sent toward Job.
shilluach: Sending away or release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch keeps the root’s sense of sending or releasing visible in the command to stretch out the hand.
THE PATTERN
A threat or wound to the body tests whether speech toward God becomes curse, lament, or appeal.
Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.THE THREAD
But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.The first accusation uses the same barak verb, “bless”, when Job’s possessions are at stake. Here that blessing-language returns as the target moves from what he has to his bone and flesh, revealing the accuser’s escalating test.
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