What Does Job 30:18 Mean in the King James?
By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
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
Suffering turns what covers the body into something that grips it like a collar.
THE MEANING
Pain presses so intensely that the garment around the body feels changed into a grip, encircling the person wearing it. The verse speaks now of how suffering can make even what lies nearest the body feel altered and constricting.
THE ROOT
יְאַזְּרֵנִי
yəʾazzĕrēnî
GROWS FROM
אזר
ʾ-z-r
To gird or fasten around.
“bindeth” in this verse is yəʾazzĕrēnî. The verb pictures the garment girding Job, closing around him like a belt or collar. The same root can describe something that steadies and supports, so here the force of suffering turns that encircling into constraint.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāzar: To gird or fasten around.
אָזַר
This verb names the action the garment performs: it closes around Job.
ʾēzōr: Belt or girdle.
אֵזוֹר
The belt is the object formed to encircle the body, making the collar-like grip in the verse more vivid.
יְהָפֵךְ
yehāphēkh
GROWS FROM
הפך
h-p-k
To turn or overturn.
The word rendered “changed” carries the sense of turning or overturning. The garment’s relation to the body is transformed: what clothes Job now closes around him like a binding edge.
ALSO GROWS
hāphakh: To turn or overturn.
הָפַךְ
This is the verb’s basic action: the garment is turned into something that girds him.
mahpēkhāh: Overthrow or upheaval.
מַהְפֵּכָה
This related noun carries the root’s forceful sense of overturning, underscoring how thoroughly suffering changes the garment’s feel.
THE PATTERN
What girds the body can either steady it or press it into constraint.
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;THE THREAD
It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.Job’s garment is said to gird him like a collar, while Psalm 18 uses the same Hebrew root אזר (ʾ-z-r), “to gird,” for being girded with strength. One root holds both the binding sensation and the support; what encircles the body changes the experience.
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