What Does Job 32:13 Mean in the King James?

Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom: God thrusteth him down, not man.

Job 32:13 · KJV

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

Naming God as the one who brings someone low does not prove that human observers understand what has happened.

THE MEANING

You do not possess wisdom simply because you can name God as the one bringing another person low. Recognizing power is different from understanding the person beneath it. The verse holds open the gap between explaining a downfall and truly knowing its cause.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that if God is responsible for someone’s suffering, our explanation of that suffering must be wise.

THE ROOT

חָכְמָה

ḥokhmāh

GROWS FROM

חכם

ḥ-k-m

To be wise or skillful, with practical discernment.

The word for wisdom belongs to a root that also describes the wise and the skillful, including skilled-hearted artisans. Wisdom here is more than a confident verdict: it is discernment shown in what a person can truly understand and handle.

ALSO GROWS

ḥākām: Wise; skillful or discerning.

חָכָם

This form makes wisdom a quality embodied in a person, rather than a conclusion someone merely claims.

ḥakhmei-lev: Wise-hearted; skilled in understanding or craft.

חַכְמֵי־לֵב

This phrase connects wisdom with practiced capacity, undercutting the idea that a forceful explanation alone proves insight.

מָצָאנוּ

matsanu

GROWS FROM

מצא

m-ṣ-ʾ

To find or come upon.

The speakers describe wisdom as something they have found, as if their explanation settles the matter. A branch of the same root means to be found or present, leaving room for truth to be encountered rather than authored by the observer.

ALSO GROWS

metzi'ah: Finding; something found.

מְצִיאָה

It keeps the sense of discovery in the speakers’ claim: finding is an encounter, not proof that the finder fully understands what has been found.

nimtsa: Is found; is present.

נִמְצָא

This form shifts attention from the finder to what is there to be found, tempering the claim that a person has mastered wisdom.

THE PATTERN

Wisdom is sourced in God, so confident human explanations do not by themselves establish understanding.

For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 2:6 · KJVThe LORD is named as wisdom’s giver, placing its source beyond the observer who claims to possess it.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

James 1:5 · KJVWisdom is given by God, rather than proven through certainty about another person’s suffering.

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

1 Corinthians 1:30 · KJVWisdom is located in what God gives, not in a person’s self-certifying explanation.

THE THREAD

For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 2:6 · KJV

Proverbs uses ⁨חָכְמָה⁩ (ḥokhmāh, wisdom), from the same root ⁨חכם⁩ (ḥ-k-m, skillful discernment) named in Job. The shared root makes Job’s warning sharper: saying that God brought someone low does not, by itself, make a human explanation wise.

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