What Does Job 20:9 Mean in the King James?
The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold 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
The verse makes absence so complete that the place itself becomes a witness that can no longer see.
THE MEANING
This verse lets you feel absence at its fullest: the eye that once saw him no longer does, and even his place no longer beholds him. Presence can vanish from both witness and location.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that having been seen guarantees an enduring presence: even the eye and the place cease to behold him.
THE ROOT
מְקוֹמוֹ
meqomo
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
Rise, stand, or come to a standing position.
The word for “place” grows from קוּם (qum), “rise, stand.” That connection gives the line an added edge: the location associated with him can no longer present him as someone standing there.
ALSO GROWS
qum: To rise or stand.
קוּם
The root beneath “place” draws attention to the presence that once stood there and is now absent.
heqim: To cause to rise, raise up, or establish.
הֵקִים
This branch links a place with what is established in it; here, even that association no longer makes him present.
tequmah: A rising or restoration to standing.
תְּקוּמָה
This branch echoes the root’s movement toward standing, which sharply contrasts with the disappearance described in the verse.
THE PATTERN
When a presence is gone, even the place attached to it can cease to bear witness to it.
He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.THE THREAD
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.Both lines use מָקוֹם (maqom, “place”), from קום (qum, “rise, stand”). Psalm 103:16 makes the same place a witness that no longer recognizes what has vanished, opening Job’s image beyond a missed sighting to a loss of presence itself.
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