What Does Job 21:14 Mean in the King James?
Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
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 request for distance reveals a desire that rejects knowing God’s way.
THE MEANING
The verse names a present possibility in you: asking God to withdraw because you do not desire to know God’s way. The distance expresses an active refusal of encounter, not merely a lack of information.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that not knowing God’s way is always just an information gap; the verse names refusal as one source of that distance.
THE ROOT
חָפַצְנוּ
chaphatsnu
GROWS FROM
חפץ
ḥ-p-ṣ
To take pleasure in, desire, or be willing.
“desire not” in this verse is chaphatsnu. The verse describes unwillingness, not inability: they do not take pleasure in knowing God’s ways. The refusal is located in what they desire, so the request for distance follows from that preference.
ALSO GROWS
chaphēts: To delight in, desire, or be willing.
חָפֵץ
This verb shows that their refusal concerns what they are willing to receive.
chephets: Delight, desire, pleasure, or a matter of concern.
חֵפֶץ
The related noun connects desire with what a person values or gives attention to.
דַּעַת
da’at
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know or recognize.
“knowledge” in this verse is da’at. The root can name knowing through recognition and encounter, not only holding information. The refusal reaches beyond facts about God: it rejects knowing God’s way relationally.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or recognize.
יָדַע
This verb brings the root’s active sense of knowing into view.
modaʿ: An acquaintance or kinsman.
מוֹדָע
This related word shows the root’s reach into personal recognition and relationship.
דְּרָכֶיךָ
derakhekha
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
To tread, step, or travel.
A way is connected to treading: it is a path walked, not merely an idea understood. To know God’s ways is to encounter the direction of that path.
ALSO GROWS
derek: A way, road, or path.
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the word’s direct form in the verse, naming the path they do not want to know.
darak: To tread or step.
דָּרַךְ
The verb exposes the movement held inside “way”: a path is made legible by walking it.
THE PATTERN
When God’s way is unwanted, resistance appears as both rejection of divine rule and refusal to retain knowledge of God.
For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;THE THREAD
My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.The same Hebrew root, דרך (d-r-k; treading), appears as “ways” here and “way” there. Job 21:14 names refusal of that path; Job 23:11 names a foot holding to its steps.
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