What Does Job 20:8 Mean in the King James?
He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
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
The man is not just gone; the Hebrew pictures him driven into restless flight, while even his night image disappears.
THE MEANING
The man before you is already passing like a dream: he flies away and cannot be found. The night vision is driven off too, so the image that filled the dark leaves no lasting trace.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what fills your sight now must remain within reach; even a vivid image can be driven out and lost.
THE ROOT
וְיֻדַּד
weyuddad
GROWS FROM
נדד
To flee or wander; in this form, to be driven away.
The verb translated “chased away” comes from a root of fleeing and wandering. The disappearance is restless displacement: the man is driven off with no place to settle.
ALSO GROWS
nādad: To flee or wander.
נָדַד
This is the root verb behind “chased away”; its motion makes the disappearance feel like flight, not simple stillness.
nedudim: Wanderings; restless tossings.
נְדוּדִים
This related word shows the root can carry ongoing, unsettled motion, sharpening the image of a figure driven from sight.
חֲלוֹם
ḥălôm
GROWS FROM
חלם
To dream; a dream.
The Hebrew noun for “dream” belongs to the same root as the verb “to dream.” The image is not merely compared to something fleeting: it is named as a dream, an experience that vanishes when it is no longer seen.
ALSO GROWS
ḥālam: To dream.
חָלַם
The verb and the verse’s noun share one root, joining the experience of dreaming to the image that disappears.
ḥălômôt: Dreams.
חֲלוֹמוֹת
The plural keeps the same word-family connection: each dream is an image that can pass from view.
חֶזְיוֹן
ḥezyôn
GROWS FROM
חזה
To see or behold.
The Hebrew word for “vision” comes from a root meaning “to see.” Beside the dream, it makes the verse’s two comparisons images of perception: vivid while seen, yet unable to hold what passes.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāh: To see or behold.
חָזָה
This verb is the root’s act of seeing, which gives “vision” its sense of something seen.
ḥōzeh: A seer; one who sees.
חֹזֶה
This related word names the one who sees, linking the night vision to the act of perception.
THE PATTERN
What appears vivid and substantial can pass beyond finding when the image dissolves.
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.THE THREAD
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.Both verses use חֲלוֹם (ḥălôm), “dream,” from the root חלם (ḥ-l-m; ḥālam), “to dream.” Job shows the man disappearing like a dream; the psalm places the same image at waking, when what appeared before the eye is gone.
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