What Does Job 31:19 Mean in the King James?
If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;
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 makes a covering a boundary between exposed need and the possibility of perishing.
THE MEANING
A person without clothing is not merely poor in name; their body faces the possibility of perishing. The verse holds that need in view as something seen now, where personal integrity meets another person’s vulnerability.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that lack of clothing is merely an outward condition dissolves here: the verse names perishing as its possible consequence.
THE ROOT
כְּסוּת
kesut
GROWS FROM
כסה
k-s-h
cover; conceal
The noun for a covering belongs to a family that also names the act of covering. The word opens a connection between the garment that shields a person and the act that keeps their exposure from being ignored.
ALSO GROWS
kasah: to cover; conceal
כָּסָה
The verb makes visible the action carried by the covering named in the verse.
mikhseh: covering; roof covering
מִכְסֶה
This branch shows the same root naming a protective cover beyond clothing.
אֹבֵד
oved
GROWS FROM
אבד
ʾ-b-d
be lost; perish
“perish” in this verse is oved. The verse places lack of clothing beside the possibility of being lost or perishing. That root connection gives the exposure material weight: the missing garment is bound to a person’s vulnerability, not just their appearance.
ALSO GROWS
avad: to be lost; perish
אָבַד
This verb supplies the root sense in the word rendered “perish.”
avaddon: destruction; ruin
אֲבַדּוֹן
This related noun carries the root’s movement toward loss into a word for destruction.
THE PATTERN
Integrity takes material form when another person’s exposed body meets actual provision.
And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment;If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.THE THREAD
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?Job’s כְּסוּת (kesut, “covering”) and Isaiah’s תְכַסֵּהוּ (tekhassehu, “cover him”) draw on כָּסָה (kasah, “cover”). Isaiah makes explicit the action carried in Job’s noun: a covering is extended to the exposed person, whose need belongs within the sight of one’s own flesh.
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