What Does Job 22:17 Mean in the King James?
Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
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 claim that God is absent and the claim that God is powerless are joined: first comes the demand for distance, then the denial of reach.
THE MEANING
The verse names a posture alive now: pushing God away, then treating that distance as proof that God cannot act. Its question exposes the assumption that removing God from your horizon removes God’s reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s ability to act depends on being welcomed into your immediate field of view.
THE ROOT
סוּר
sur
GROWS FROM
סור
Turn aside, depart, or remove.
“Depart” in this verse is sur. The request invokes the language of turning aside or removing something from a place. The same root can describe taking something away, so this separation is an intentional act, not proof that God cannot act beyond it.
ALSO GROWS
sur: Turn aside or depart.
סוּר
This is the word in the verse: God is told to leave their presence.
hēsîr: Remove or take away.
הֵסִיר
This causative form shows the root can describe actively removing something, sharpening the force of the demand.
יִפְעַל
yif'al
GROWS FROM
פעל
Do, make, or work.
The question asks what the Almighty can do or bring about; the verb itself names action and work. The sentence does not describe God as inactive, it challenges whether divine action reaches those who have demanded distance.
ALSO GROWS
po'el: A worker or one who acts.
פֹּעֵל
This form names an agent through the same root of doing and working.
pe'ullah: A deed, work, or action.
פְּעֻלָּה
The action noun keeps the focus on what is brought about, the very possibility the question dismisses.
THE PATTERN
When God is removed from thought, chosen distance can be mistaken for divine absence or inactivity.
He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.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;And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.THE THREAD
If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?The question “what doest thou” uses the same Hebrew root פעל (pa’al, do or act) as “what can the Almighty do” here. Read together, the verses turn the question of action around: human dismissal does not settle what God can do, just as human action does not define God’s reach.
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