What Does Job 32:20 Mean in the King James?
I will speak, that I may be refreshed: I will open my lips and answer.
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
“Refreshed” pictures room opening inside the speaker: speaking moves him from pressure toward spaciousness.
THE MEANING
Your words do more than deliver an answer; they make room inside the pressure. As you open your lips, what has been held inward enters expression, and relief becomes possible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that keeping every word inside is what preserves your composure; here, relief arrives through speech.
THE ROOT
וְיִרְוַח
veyirvaḥ
GROWS FROM
ר־ו־ח
r-w-ḥ
To become spacious or relieved; to have room.
“refreshed” in this verse is veyirvaḥ. The verb frames relief as room opening inside the speaker, so speaking is itself a release, not merely the delivery of an answer. Its consonants echo רוּחַ (ruach, breath), placing spaciousness beside breath in the sound of the line without collapsing their meanings.
ALSO GROWS
ravach: To be relieved or eased, as in “Saul was refreshed” (1 Samuel 16:23).
רָוַח
The same verb shows relief as pressure giving way, clarifying what the speaker seeks through his words.
revach: Space or interval between groups; also relief or room (Genesis 32:16; Esther 4:14).
רֶוַח
This noun makes the root’s image concrete: relief is space where there was constriction.
THE PATTERN
When what is held inward finds expression, pressure can give way to relief and repair.
Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.“Refreshed” in both verses comes from ר־ו־ח (r-w-ḥ), the root of spaciousness and relief. In Job, the opening comes through speech; here, it comes through music.
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