What Does Job 24:8 Mean in the King James?
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
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 word for shelter comes from a root meaning “to seek refuge,” so the verse shows the exposed clinging to the rock itself when refuge is absent.
THE MEANING
People are soaked by mountain rain, then cling to the rock because there is no shelter. The verse speaks now wherever a body must press against whatever protection the landscape offers.
THE ROOT
מַחְסֶה
maḥseh
GROWS FROM
חסה
To seek refuge or take shelter.
The Hebrew word for shelter belongs to the root חָסָה, “to seek refuge,” tying the place of safety to the act of taking refuge. Here that shelter is missing, so the exposed cling to the rock itself.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsâ: To seek refuge, take shelter.
חָסָה
This verb names the act that the absent shelter would have made possible.
ḥōseh: One who seeks refuge; one who takes shelter.
חֹסֶה
This form names the person seeking the protection that the verse’s people lack.
THE PATTERN
When shelter is absent, exposed life seeks refuge in whatever can withstand the storm.
For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.THE THREAD
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.Job’s “shelter” and Psalm’s “refuge” draw on the same ח־ס־ה root, the language of seeking refuge. Job shows people without a מַחְסֶה, clinging to rock; Psalm names the refuge they lack.
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