What Does Job 27:17 Mean in the King James?
He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.
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 one who prepares the wealth cannot decide who will wear it or divide it.
THE MEANING
One person can make wealth ready without securing its final possession. The aligned person wears it, and the clear person shares the silver: preparation and ownership are not the same power.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever I prepare and accumulate is therefore mine to keep.
THE ROOT
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
To be right or aligned.
The just person is described through alignment, not merely a verdict of innocence. The verse places what one person prepares into the hands of someone aligned.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Justice, rightness, alignment.
צֶדֶק
It shows that the just person’s identity is rooted in what is rightly aligned.
tsedaqah: Righteousness, acts of justice or giving.
צְדָקָה
It extends alignment into what a person does with what they hold.
יָכִין
yakhin
GROWS FROM
כון
k-w-n
To be firm, set in place, or establish.
The word translated “prepare” carries the sense of establishing something, making it ready and set in place. Yet the verse separates making wealth ready from deciding who will possess it.
ALSO GROWS
kun: To be firm, established, or set in place.
כּוּן
It reveals the firmness implied in the act of preparing the wealth.
makhon: A fixed place, dwelling, or foundation.
מָכוֹן
This branch shares the idea of something established in its place, while the verse shows that wealth can still pass to another.
נָקִי
naqi
GROWS FROM
נקה
n-q-h
To be clean, clear, or free of liability.
“Innocent” carries the image of being clear or clean, not entangled in guilt. The person who divides the silver is named by that cleanness, adding another dimension to the aligned person who wears the prepared wealth.
ALSO GROWS
naqah: To be clean, clear, or acquitted.
נָקָה
It shows the underlying sense of being free from what would make a person liable.
niqqayon: Cleanness or innocence.
נִקָּיוֹן
It makes explicit the quality carried by the person who divides the silver.
THE PATTERN
Gathering wealth cannot secure its gatherer’s final possession.
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?THE THREAD
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.Job’s “just” and Proverbs’ “just” share the Hebrew root צדק (ṣ-d-q), alignment or rightness. Proverbs makes the transfer explicit: wealth is laid up for the aligned, opening Job’s image of one person preparing while another wears and divides it.
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