What Does Job 22:2 Mean in the King James?
Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?
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 locates wisdom’s profit in the person who grows wise, not in a God who needs to be supplied.
THE MEANING
Your wisdom can benefit your own life, but it does not add to God or fill a lack in God. The gain belongs to the person who grows wise: understanding bears fruit in human life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that your value depends on making God more complete through what you provide.
THE ROOT
יִסְכָּן
yiskān
GROWS FROM
סכן
s-k-n
To be useful or of benefit; in another form, to become familiar or acquainted.
“profitable” in this verse is yiskān. This root carries both the language of benefit and, in Job 22:21, the language of becoming acquainted. The question asks what human wisdom supplies to God, while the root’s other branch points toward the benefit a person finds in knowing God.
ALSO GROWS
sākhan: To be useful or beneficial.
סָכַן
This is the sense of profit behind the question: whether a person’s wisdom brings God some gain.
haskēn: Become acquainted or familiar.
הַסְכֵּן
The same root appears in Job 22:21, where becoming acquainted with God is linked to good coming to the person.
גָּבֶר
gever
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
To be strong, prevail, or have strength.
The word for man carries the language of strength and prevailing. Even the capable human may gain from wisdom, but human strength does not make God someone who needs to be furnished.
ALSO GROWS
gāvar: Be strong or prevail.
גָּבַר
The root gives the human figure in the question a shade of strength and capability.
gibbōr: A mighty one or warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
This branch makes the contrast sharper: even a mighty person’s wisdom benefits that person, not God.
THE PATTERN
Human wisdom and goodness bear fruit in human life, while God does not depend on human hands to be complete.
If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;THE THREAD
Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.The root behind “profitable” returns here in “Acquaint,” linking benefit with becoming familiar with God. The movement is from asking what wisdom gives God to seeing the good that comes to the person through acquaintance with God.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us