What Does Job 29:5 Mean in the King James?
When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
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
Its ache comes from a double nearness: the Almighty beside him and his children encircling him.
THE MEANING
This verse gives voice to the ache of remembering a time when the Almighty felt near and your children were close. It holds both forms of nearness together: presence beside you and family gathered around you. It lets loss be spoken without making absence proof that the closeness was never real.
THE ROOT
סְבִיבוֹתַי
sevivotai
GROWS FROM
סבב
To go around, encircle, or surround.
The Hebrew word means “around me,” giving the children a shape in the verse: they encircle the speaker. English can make “about me” sound like a simple location, while the root reveals a life held within a circle of family presence.
ALSO GROWS
savav: To turn around or encircle.
סָבַב
This verb makes the motion inside “around” visible: the children form a surrounding circle.
saviv: Around or all about.
סָבִיב
This related form carries the same spatial image into Psalm 128:3, where children are round about the table.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures belonging as life gathered in a circle around a shared center.
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!THE THREAD
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.Job’s word סְבִיבוֹתַי (sevivotai, around me) and the psalm’s סָבִיב (saviv, around) grow from the same root, סבב (s-b-b, to encircle). Job names the circle of young ones around a person; the psalm places children around the table where the household gathers.
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