What Does Job 33:17 Mean in the King James?
That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from 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 “purpose” here is מַעֲשֶׂה, a person’s doing, so the verse places divine redirection inside the work already taking shape.
THE MEANING
God turns a person away from what they are doing and covers pride from that person’s sight. The verse holds redirection and hiddenness together: neither a person’s course nor their self-understanding is entirely in their own hands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a person always sees the pride shaping their choices and fully controls their direction is undone: God can interrupt the course and keep that pride unseen.
THE ROOT
מַעֲשֶׂה
maʿăśeh
GROWS FROM
עשה
To do, make, or accomplish.
מַעֲשֶׂה carries the concrete sense of deed or work alongside the rendered “purpose,” and it comes from עָשָׂה (ʿāśâ), “to do, make.” The verse places God’s turning at the level of the person’s doing itself: what is underway can be interrupted while pride remains outside that person’s view.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāśâ: To do or make.
עָשָׂה
The verb at the root of מַעֲשֶׂה keeps the person’s course grounded in actual doing.
maʿăśeh: A deed, work, or action.
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun names the activity from which the person is turned.
יְכַסֶּה
yekhasseh
GROWS FROM
כסה
To cover or conceal.
“hide” in this verse is yekhasseh. יְכַסֶּה means “he covers,” giving the concealment of pride a covering image. Pride is put under cover from the person’s own view, not simply named as a trait.
ALSO GROWS
kāsāh: To cover or conceal.
כָּסָה
This verb is the direct root form behind the verse’s image of covering.
mekhasseh: Covering; one who covers.
מְכַסֶּה
This form keeps the root’s act of covering active in the word family.
גֶּבֶר
geber
GROWS FROM
גבר
To be strong or prevail.
The verse first calls the person אָדָם (ʾādām) and then גֶּבֶר (geber), a word from the family of strength and prevailing. Pride is hidden from the “strong man” himself, placing human potency beside human blind spots.
ALSO GROWS
gibbôr: A mighty one or warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
Its shared גבר root links the man in the verse with the language of might.
gevūrāh: Might or strength.
גְּבוּרָה
This branch makes explicit the strength carried by the גֶּבֶר word family.
THE PATTERN
A person’s course and inner motives remain within God’s reach, even when they are hidden from that person.
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.THE THREAD
But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.In both verses, מַעֲשֶׂה (maʿăśeh) names work or action: Job speaks of a person turned from his doing, while Isaiah calls people the work of God’s hand. The shared root holds human doing beside divine making, opening the possibility that the course being interrupted belongs to a person still being shaped.
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