What Does Job 29:20 Mean in the King James?
My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.
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
What has weight within you can remain fresh, while the strength in your hand is renewed.
THE MEANING
Inner weight and newness coexist: what matters within you is not condemned to grow stale. Strength is renewed in the hand, restoring the capacity you carry into action.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what once carried weight must grow stale or that renewal means losing strength; the verse holds inner freshness and a renewed bow together.
THE ROOT
תַּחֲלִיף
taḥaliph
GROWS FROM
חלף
To pass, change, or exchange; renewal carries the sense of change.
“renewed” in this verse is taḥaliph. The bow is not merely preserved as it was: it changes in the hand. Renewal here is a fresh capacity, not simply the addition of more.
ALSO GROWS
yaḥalifu: They shall renew or change
יַחֲלִיפוּ
Isaiah uses this same root for strength that is renewed, opening Job’s bow into a wider image of renewed capacity.
ḥalifot: Changes or exchanges, including changes of clothing
חֲלִיפוֹת
The root’s language of exchange makes renewal a transition: one condition gives way to another.
כְּבוֹדִי
kevodí
GROWS FROM
כבד
To be heavy or carry weight.
The word translated “glory” carries the sense of weight: substance, significance, what has presence. Here that weight is fresh within the speaker, joining depth with newness.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy
כָּבֵד
This branch makes the word’s sense of weight audible beneath “glory.”
kavod: Weight, honor, glory
כָּבוֹד
The same word holds weight and honor together, so the speaker’s inner significance has substance.
חָדָשׁ
ḥadash
GROWS FROM
חדש
To be new or renew.
“fresh” in this verse is ḥadash. Freshness is described as newness within the speaker, beside the weight he carries. The verse lets what is substantial be new again.
ALSO GROWS
ḥadash: New, fresh
חָדָשׁ
This is the word used for the speaker’s glory: his inner weight is fresh with him.
ḥodesh: Month, associated with the new moon
חֹדֶשׁ
The related word preserves the image of newness returning in a cycle.
THE PATTERN
Renewal makes inner strength fresh again and restores capacity for the work at hand.
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.THE THREAD
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.Job’s “renewed” and Isaiah’s “shall renew” come from חלף (ḥ-l-p), meaning to pass, change, or exchange. Isaiah’s renewed strength opens Job’s bow in the hand into the same picture: capacity made fresh again.
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