What Does Job 21:27 Mean in the King James?
Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.
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 Hebrew names the thought aimed at someone as a design carrying violence, not as an innocent idea.
THE MEANING
When hostility is directed at you, the verse gives you language to name its hidden design. A thought can already carry wrongful intent before it becomes open action.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that concealed hostility is harmless until it becomes visible; the verse calls the design wrongful already.
THE ROOT
תַּחְמֹסוּ
taḥmosu
GROWS FROM
ח־מ־ס
ḥ-m-s
To act violently, violate, or wrong.
The KJV’s “wrongfully imagine” carries the force of a Hebrew verb for doing violence or wrong. The verse gives a concealed scheme the weight of harm already aimed at its target.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmas: To act violently or wrongfully.
חָמַס
This verbal form shows the wrongdoing as directed action, not a neutral thought.
ḥāmās: Violence or wrong.
חָמָס
The noun names the same force as explicit violence, revealing the harm carried by the plan.
מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם
maḥshevoteikhem
GROWS FROM
ח־ש־ב
ḥ-sh-b
To think, reckon, calculate, or devise.
The Hebrew root can describe both thinking and reckoning, so these “thoughts” have the sense of something formed or calculated. The same root appears in Psalm 35:20 for people who “devise deceitful matters.”
ALSO GROWS
maḥashavah: A thought or plan.
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This is the singular form behind the verse’s “thoughts,” tying inner thought to a formed design.
ḥeshbon: An account or reckoning.
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This branch’s sense of reckoning reveals the calculating quality that can lie inside a plan.
מְזִמּוֹת
mezimmot
GROWS FROM
ז־מ־ם
z-m-m
To plan, purpose, or devise.
“Devices” here means plans or schemes: intentions with a shape and direction. “Against me” makes that direction unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
zāmam: To plan, devise, or purpose.
זָמַם
The verb presents a scheme as an intentional act of planning.
mezimmāh: A plan, scheme, or discretion.
מְזִמָּה
The word can describe prudent planning or a harmful scheme; here, its direction against the speaker gives it a hostile edge.
THE PATTERN
Hostility can take shape in thought and counsel before it becomes open action, and its design can be named.
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:THE THREAD
For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.Psalm 35:20 uses the same Hebrew root as Job’s word for “thoughts” to say that people “devise” deceitful matters. The shared root reveals thought as something that can already be taking shape against another.
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