What Does Job 32:21 Mean in the King James?
Let me not, I pray you, accept any man’s person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man.
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 Hebrew pictures partiality as lifting someone’s face, so favoritism is an act of elevation before it becomes a word.
THE MEANING
A person’s standing can raise them in your eyes, then raise them again through words chosen to please them. This verse holds impartial regard and truthful speech together: neither a person’s status nor the desire for their favor sets the weight of what you say.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a flattering title is only politeness; praise can quietly carry someone’s status into speech and bend what is said about them.
THE ROOT
אֶשָּׂא פְּנֵי־אִישׁ
essā p'nei ish
GROWS FROM
נשא
to lift, carry, bear, or take up
“accept a man's person” in this verse is essā p'nei ish. The Hebrew phrase literally pictures lifting a man’s face. The root also holds the sense of carrying: special regard can lift a person above others and carry their status into judgment.
ALSO GROWS
nasi: leader, prince
נָשִׂיא
This title for a person in authority echoes the image of someone socially elevated.
massa: burden, load; something carried
מַשָּׂא
The same root can describe what is borne, suggesting how a person’s standing can be carried into the way they are regarded.
THE PATTERN
Honest judgment and speech do not lift a person’s standing above the truth.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:THE THREAD
How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands.This verse repeats the image of lifting a face and names princes, rich, and poor to make the issue of status visible. It opens Job 32:21 further: refusing to flatter is part of the same impartial regard that does not elevate one person above another.
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