What Does Job 31:6 Mean in the King James?
Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
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 integrity the wholeness that remains visible on God’s just scale.
THE MEANING
Your life is placed on a just scale before God, where integrity can be seen as it is. The word points to wholeness: what holds together when measured against justice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s scrutiny can only condemn: a just measure can reveal wholeness as well as failure.
THE ROOT
תֻּמָּתִי
tummati
GROWS FROM
תמם
To be complete or whole.
The word behind “integrity” points to wholeness. The verse presents integrity as the coherence of a life brought into view under a just measure.
ALSO GROWS
tam: Whole, blameless.
תָּם
This branch shows that integrity carries the sense of being whole, not merely appearing correct.
tamim: Complete, whole.
תָּמִים
This branch echoes the idea of a life examined for its wholeness.
צֶדֶק
tsedeq
GROWS FROM
צדק
Justice, rightness, alignment.
“even balance” in this verse is tsedeq. The Hebrew phrase is “balances of justice/alignment.” The scale is more than a level surface: it measures a life against what is rightly ordered.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: Just, aligned.
צַדִּיק
This branch joins the measure of justice to the state of being rightly aligned.
tzedakah: Justice, right conduct.
צְדָקָה
This branch shows justice expressed in action, the same standard brought to the scale.
וְיֵדַע
weyeda
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, perceive, recognize through encounter.
“know” in this verse is weyeda. The word for knowing carries the sense of recognition through encounter, not merely receiving information. The weighing brings integrity into view as something encountered and recognized.
ALSO GROWS
yodea: One who knows or perceives.
יֹדֵעַ
This form keeps the sense of knowing as active recognition.
de’ah: Knowledge, understanding.
דֵּעָה
This branch links knowing with understanding that comes from perceiving.
THE PATTERN
God’s just measure brings a life’s inner integrity into view.
A just weight and balance are the LORD’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.THE THREAD
Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.Job’s “even balance” is literally “balances of justice/alignment” (מֹאזְנֵי־צֶדֶק, moznei-tsedeq). Leviticus uses the same phrase for honest measures, tying integrity before God to justice in the things a person weighs.
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