What Does Job 30:21 Mean in the King James?
Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against 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
The word translated “become” carries the sense “turn”: the pain is that divine strength now feels turned against you.
THE MEANING
You name the One you address as having turned cruel toward you; the strong hand feels set against you. The verse holds that accusation in full force, without explaining the wound away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that honest speech to God must hide its anger: this verse addresses God directly as cruel and opposing.
THE ROOT
תַּהֲפֹךְ
tahafokh
GROWS FROM
הפך
h-p-k
Turn, change, or overturn.
The verb translated “become” comes from the root meaning “turn” or “overturn.” Cruelty is presented as a turn in the relationship: the divine hand now feels like force turned against you.
ALSO GROWS
haphakh: To turn or overturn.
הָפַךְ
This verb makes the turning inside “become” audible.
mahpekhah: An overthrow or overturning.
מַהְפֵּכָה
This noun shows the same root describing a turn that upends what was in place.
עֹצֶם
ʿotsem
GROWS FROM
עצם
ʿ-ts-m
Be strong, mighty, or numerous.
The Hebrew phrase speaks of the strength of God’s hand, compressed in KJV into “strong hand.” This root also names what is mighty and the body’s bones, bringing force close to strength embodied in the frame.
ALSO GROWS
ʿatsum: Mighty, great, or numerous.
עָצוּם
This adjective makes explicit the might carried by the hand in the verse.
ʿetsem: Bone; the body’s hard substance.
עֶצֶם
This branch connects strength with the body’s underlying frame.
תִּשְׂטְמֵנִי
tistəmēni
GROWS FROM
שטם
ś-ṭ-m
Hate or bear hostility toward.
“opposest” in this verse is tistəmēni. The Hebrew verb names hostility, while the English rendering pictures opposition. The root makes the accusation relational as well as forceful: the hand feels against you because the One addressed seems hostile.
ALSO GROWS
wayyiśṭom: And he bore hatred or hostility.
וַיִּשְׂטֹם
This form describes hostility held toward another, like the opposition named here.
wayyiśṭəmuhu: And they hated him.
וַיִּשְׂטְמֻהוּ
This form shows the same root naming hatred directed against someone.
THE PATTERN
Lament can speak to God in the language of being attacked, overwhelmed, or abandoned without disguising the pain.
He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?THE THREAD
And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.Job’s “become” comes from הפך, the root of “turn” and “overturn”; Genesis uses that same root for the overthrow of the cities. The shared root gives Job’s accusation the force of a world turned over.
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