What Does Job 23:17 Mean in the King James?

Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.

Job 23:17 · KJV

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 ties “before the darkness” to “from my face” through one face-root, placing Job in direct view of a darkness that has not lifted.

THE MEANING

The darkness stands before you and is not hidden from your face. You are not cut off before it; the verse holds a voice still present within what has not lifted. The darkness remains real.

THE ROOT

מִפְּנֵי

mippənê

GROWS FROM

פנה

p-n-h

Turn or face toward; this word family also names the face, front, and what is before someone.

“before / my face” in this verse is mippənê. English makes “before” and “my face” sound like separate spatial ideas. Hebrew uses the same face-root in both phrases: darkness is before Job, and gloom is not concealed from his face. The verse keeps him in view of the unrelieved dark rather than saying it has disappeared.

ALSO GROWS

pānîm: Face; front; presence.

פָּנִים

The phrase “from my face” uses this face and front word family.

lifnê: Before; in front of.

לִפְנֵי

The phrase “before the darkness” uses the same family, joining the two clauses in one scene.

pānāh: Turn; face toward.

פָּנָה

The root’s sense of facing helps show how the verse places darkness in front of Job.

חֹשֶׁךְ

ḥōshekh

GROWS FROM

חשך

ḥ-sh-kh

Grow dark or be dark.

The first “darkness” is ⁨חֹשֶׁךְ⁩ (ḥōshekh, darkness). The verse then switches to a different Hebrew word for the second “darkness,” so the English repetition smooths over a shift in the imagery.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāshakh: Grow dark; be dark.

חָשַׁךְ

The verb carries the same darkening sense as the noun in Job’s phrase.

ḥōshekh: Darkness.

חֹשֶׁךְ

This is the word Job uses for the darkness standing before him.

אֹפֶל

ʾōp̄el

GROWS FROM

אפל

ʾ-p-l

Be dim or obscure; deep gloom.

The second “darkness” is ⁨אָפֵל⁩ (ʾōp̄el, deep gloom), from a different root than the first. The parallel intensifies the scene: one darkness stands before Job, and gloom is not concealed from his face.

ALSO GROWS

ʾōp̄el: Deep gloom; darkness.

אֹפֶל

This is the word in the second clause, where Job says it has not been covered from his face.

ʾăp̄ēlāh: Darkness; obscurity.

אֲפֵלָה

This related form carries the same gloom and obscurity into another noun.

THE PATTERN

Scripture can name what presses against a person while keeping their presence, voice, or movement in view.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Psalm 23:4 · KJVThe valley remains dark, yet the speaker is still walking through it and is not alone.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

John 1:5 · KJVThe light shines while darkness is present; the verse does not erase the darkness to name the light.

Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

2 Corinthians 4:9 · KJVBeing cast down is named plainly, alongside the insistence that it is not the end.

THE THREAD

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

Psalm 139:12 · KJV

The darkness before Job is ⁨חֹשֶׁךְ⁩ (ḥōshekh, darkness), the same Hebrew word used here. The Psalm opens Job’s line further: darkness remains, yet it does not make the scene unseen to God.

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