What Does Job 21:7 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
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 lets wickedness, long life, and real power coexist without treating prosperity as proof of goodness.
THE MEANING
You see people marked by wickedness continue to live, grow old, and become powerful in tangible ways. The verse lets that contradiction stand as a real question instead of turning prosperity into proof that their way is right.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Long life and visible power reliably prove that someone’s conduct is right.
THE ROOT
גָּבְרוּ
gāḇərū
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
To be strong, prevail, or overcome.
“are mighty” in this verse is gāḇərū. The verb means more than possessing power: it describes prevailing or becoming strong. It stands beside חַיִל (ḥayil, strength, resources, or wealth), so the verse names both rising force and the means through which that force becomes visible.
ALSO GROWS
gāḇar: To be strong or prevail.
גָּבַר
This verb shows the active force inside the phrase translated are mighty.
gibbōr: A mighty person or warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
The same root describes someone whose strength is publicly visible.
gəḇūrāh: Might, strength, or valor.
גְּבוּרָה
This branch makes the root’s range clear: power can describe a person, an action, or the strength itself.
יִחְיוּ
yiḥyū
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥ-y-h
To live or remain alive.
“live” in this verse is yiḥyū. The form describes continuing life, so Job’s question concerns people who go on living as the years pass and their power grows. The root carries no verdict of goodness: here, life is named as an observable fact alongside wickedness.
ALSO GROWS
ḥay: Living or alive.
חַי
This adjective shares the root’s direct sense of being alive.
ḥayyim: Life.
חַיִּים
The noun makes visible the same root that appears here as the ongoing act of living.
רְשָׁעִים
reshaʿim
GROWS FROM
רשע
r-sh-ʿ
To act wickedly or be guilty.
This root can name a wicked person, wickedness itself, and the act of doing wrong, binding the label to conduct. That designation stands beside continued life and rising force, so naming the wrong does not make its visible success disappear.
ALSO GROWS
rāshāʿ: A wicked person.
רָשָׁע
This singular form shares the root of the plural word in the verse.
reshaʿ: Wickedness or wrongdoing.
רֶשַׁע
The noun names the condition or conduct associated with the person.
hirshiaʿ: To act wickedly or incur guilt.
הִרְשִׁיעַ
This verbal branch connects the label to what a person does.
THE PATTERN
Visible prosperity is not a reliable measure of moral alignment.
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.THE THREAD
Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.Job’s רְשָׁעִים (reshaʿim, wicked ones) and Psalm’s רְשָׁעִים (reshaʿim, wicked ones) share the root רשע (r-sh-ʿ, wickedness). Psalm names the same visible paradox: they prosper and increase in riches, while the text still identifies them by their wickedness.
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