What Does Job 31:31 Mean in the King James?
If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
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
Job makes fullness audible: the people under his roof do not cry that they need his flesh before they can be satisfied.
THE MEANING
The line names an unbearable edge of hunger: people can be left wanting even the flesh of the one who holds the food. Its claim rests on that cry not being heard under the reader’s roof. Here, satisfaction is bodily satiety, the difference between being cared for in theory and having enough.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that provision is proven by the giver’s good intentions; the people’s actual fullness is the evidence.
THE ROOT
נִשְׂבָּע
niśbāʿ
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
to be full, sated
“satisfied” in this verse is niśbāʿ. The word names bodily satiety, not a vague sense of contentment. Its related forms name both the sated person and fullness itself, making Job’s claim concrete: the people beneath his roof have enough to eat.
ALSO GROWS
śāvēaʿ: full, sated
שָׂבֵעַ
This describes the state Job says his household does not have to plead for.
śōvaʿ: satiety, fullness
שֹׂבַע
This names the condition of having enough, the very condition against which the household’s hunger is measured.
THE PATTERN
Care becomes visible in whether hungry people receive enough to be filled.
For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:THE THREAD
For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.Job’s “satisfied” and Psalm’s “satisfieth” share the root שׂבע (ś-b-ʿ), meaning to be full or sated. Job measures whether hunger is left unmet; Psalm names fullness as the answer to longing.
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