What Does Job 20:20 Mean in the King James?
Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.
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
What the belly desires cannot become the quietness the belly is seeking.
THE MEANING
The verse names a condition in which the belly never knows quiet and what is desired cannot be kept. It speaks to the present moment when appetite promises ease but leaves the inner life unsettled. The desired thing and the hoped-for rest are not the same.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that getting what is wanted guarantees inward ease. The verse sets desire beside a belly still without quiet.
THE ROOT
חֲמוּדוֹ
ḥămūdô
GROWS FROM
חמד
To desire, covet, or find desirable.
English “desired” can sound like a private thought, but this root also names what appears desirable, the thing that draws appetite toward itself. Here, that desire sits beside a belly that knows no ease: attraction does not itself satisfy or secure.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmad: To desire, covet, or find desirable.
חָמַד
The verb names the pull of wanting that underlies the desirable thing in the verse.
neḥmād: Desirable, pleasant, or coveted.
נֶחְמָד
The same root describes the tree “to be desired” in Genesis 3:6, linking desire with what catches the eye and draws appetite.
maḥmād: A desirable or precious thing.
מַחְמָד
This noun makes the root’s movement visible: desire can become the thing treated as precious.
יָדַע
yādaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, perceive, or experience.
The verse says the belly does not know quietness, making rest something experienced inwardly rather than an abstract idea. The verb ties knowing to encounter: the desired thing may be present to the appetite, while ease remains unknown.
ALSO GROWS
yōdēaʿ: Knowing; one who knows.
יֹדֵעַ
This participle keeps the root’s sense of lived knowing, clarifying that quietness is something the belly would have to experience.
hōdîaʿ: To make known or inform.
הוֹדִיעַ
The causative form shows the root can also describe bringing something into another’s knowledge.
THE PATTERN
Desire aimed at acquisition cannot quiet the appetite that drives it.
Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.THE THREAD
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.Genesis uses חמד (ḥ-m-d, desire or find desirable) for the tree “to be desired.” There, desire draws from what is seen toward what is eaten; Job places the desired thing beside a belly that cannot know quiet, exposing the gap between wanting and rest.
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