What Does Job 20:22 Mean in the King James?
In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
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
Distress arrives at the very peak of sufficiency: having enough does not make a person unreachable by harm.
THE MEANING
Even when life feels full, trouble can still arrive and press in from every side. Abundance does not place the reader beyond vulnerability.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that reaching a point of having enough means hardship can no longer reach you.
THE ROOT
מְלֹאת
melōʾt
GROWS FROM
מלא
To fill, be full, or reach fullness.
“fulness” in this verse is melōʾt. The verse places distress at the moment fullness is complete. Being filled describes abundance, but it does not mean a person is sealed against what comes next.
ALSO GROWS
mālēʾ: To be full or filled.
מָלֵא
It shares the verse’s image of reaching a full measure.
millēʾ: To fill or complete.
מִלֵּא
It shows the same root can describe fullness as something brought to completion, without promising protection afterward.
עָמֵל
ʿāmēl
GROWS FROM
עמל
Toil or trouble; to labor in a way that brings hardship.
“wicked” in this verse is ʿāmēl. The hand that comes upon the person is described with a word tied to toil and trouble. The verse pictures harm as an active force arriving, not merely as an abstract condition.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmāl: Toil, trouble, or mischief.
עָמָל
It reveals the trouble-bearing sense beneath the word translated “wicked.”
ʿāmēl: One who toils or causes trouble.
עָמֵל
It gives the hand in the verse an agent: trouble comes through someone’s action.
THE PATTERN
Possessions can reach their fullness without becoming protection from loss or trouble.
For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?THE THREAD
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?Luke gives the same sudden exposure: a person may have gathered abundance, yet it cannot protect them from what arrives next. Together, the verses reveal that sufficiency can fill a life without making it invulnerable.
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