What Does Job 33:31 Mean in the King James?
Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I will speak.
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
Here, silence is a threshold between hearing and speech, not a cancellation of the listener.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as someone whose attention can make room for another voice. The pause is not empty: the speaker holds it with a promise to speak.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every pause means your voice is being erased: here, silence is joined to a stated intention to speak.
THE ROOT
שְׁמַע
shemaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed, or respond.
The verb carries more than sound reaching the ear; it can mean hearing that takes something in and responds. English “hearken” can sound like mere attention, while this root holds listening and response together.
ALSO GROWS
shemūʿāh: A report or news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch makes hearing something received and carried, not just a sound passing by.
shōmēaʿ: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The verse addresses you as a listener, giving your attention an active place in the exchange.
הַחֲרֵשׁ
haḥărēš
GROWS FROM
חרש
Be silent or keep quiet; related usage also carries the sense of being deaf.
“hold thy peace” in this verse is haḥărēš. The silence here is a held response: the speaker asks Job to refrain from speaking while he takes his turn. A related form can mean “deaf,” bringing hearing and silence into the same word-family, though the verse uses the verb for keeping quiet.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērēš: A deaf person.
חֵרֵשׁ
This related form links silence with the absence of heard sound, sharpening the verse’s contrast between listening and withholding speech.
heḥĕrîš: He kept silent.
הֶחֱרִישׁ
This verbal form names silence as an act of restraint, matching the pause requested in the verse.
אֲדַבֵּר
ʾădabbēr
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak; the related noun names a word, matter, or thing.
“speak” in this verse is ʾădabbēr. The root connects speaking with the word or matter being spoken. The verse places that substantive speech after a held pause, so silence is the space before something is said.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The noun shows that speech concerns a matter with substance, not sound alone.
dibbēr: He spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This related verb makes the promised speech an action that follows the listener’s pause.
THE PATTERN
Listening and silence give speech room to become part of an exchange.
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:THE THREAD
If thou hast any thing to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to justify thee.The next line changes the force of “hold thy peace”: the silence is not a permanent removal of Job’s voice. The turn returns to him with an explicit invitation to speak, making the pause part of an exchange.
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