What Does Job 27:19 Mean in the King James?
The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he openeth his eyes, and he is not.
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 separates abundance from being gathered: the rich man can open his eyes and still be gone.
THE MEANING
Wealth cannot secure the reader’s continued presence. The rich man lies down, opens his eyes, and is not; the verse leaves that absence unsoftened. Being rich and being gathered are not the same condition.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that having enough can guarantee a secure future or make its possessor immune to disappearance.
THE ROOT
יֵאָסֵף
yēʾāsēp
GROWS FROM
אָסַף
To gather or collect.
English “gathered” can sound like a softened way to say “died,” but the Hebrew keeps the verb of bringing together. Job’s rich man is not gathered; abundance does not ensure that he enters the image of belonging carried by this word.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāsîp: The harvest gathering.
אָסִיף
The same root describes collecting a harvest, giving “gathered” a concrete sense of being brought in.
ʾasuppāh: A gathered company or assembly.
אֲסֻפָּה
This branch makes the contrast in Job sharper: the man is not gathered into a company.
פָּקַח
pāqaḥ
GROWS FROM
פקח
To open, especially the eyes.
“openeth” in this verse is pāqaḥ. The verse sets opened eyes beside absence: seeing again does not mean the person is secured. The Hebrew preserves that stark split rather than letting waking imply a return to life.
ALSO GROWS
lip̄qōaḥ: To open, as in opening blind eyes.
לִפְקֹחַ
This verbal form makes the opening of the eyes an act, not a guarantee of what follows.
piqqēaḥ: One who sees; clear-sighted.
פִּקֵחַ
The related form links opened eyes with sight, while Job’s line still ends with the person absent.
THE PATTERN
What a person accumulates cannot guarantee that they themselves will be gathered into lasting life.
For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.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
Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.Job’s “not be gathered” and Genesis’s “was gathered” use the same root, אָסַף (ʾāsap, gather). Genesis pairs that verb with “to his people,” giving Job’s negation a sharp counterpoint: the rich man is not gathered.
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