What Does Job 33:33 Mean in the King James?
If not, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom.
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
Silence is the hinge between hearing and wisdom: understanding enters where the answer pauses.
THE MEANING
This verse names a living sequence: you hear, your reply rests, and wisdom is imparted. Quiet here makes room for instruction to reach you; it is part of receiving, not an absence of understanding.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a pause means nothing is happening gives way to this: silence can be the space in which wisdom arrives.
THE ROOT
שְׁמָעֵנִי
shemaʿeni
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, heed, and respond.
“hearken” in this verse is shemaʿeni. The root שמע (shamaʿ, hear and respond) holds more than sound reaching the ear; it carries the movement of receiving and answering. Here, that hearing is followed by quiet, letting instruction arrive before a reply takes over.
ALSO GROWS
shāmaʿ: To hear, listen, or heed.
שָׁמַע
The root’s active sense makes hearkening a form of receptive engagement.
shemuʿah: A report or message that has been heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The branch shows how what is heard can carry something to the listener.
הַחֲרֵשׁ
haḥarēsh
GROWS FROM
חרש
ḥ-r-sh
Be silent; keep quiet.
“hold thy peace” in this verse is haḥarēsh. The command uses the consonants ḥ-r-sh, whose lexical range includes silence and deafness. In this verse, the silence is chosen after hearing: attention has both an open ear and a quiet mouth.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāraš: To keep silent or hold one’s peace.
חָרַשׁ
This is the action the verse places between hearing and being taught.
ḥērēsh: A person who is deaf.
חֵרֵשׁ
This related form sharpens the contrast between hearing the speaker and then quieting one’s own response.
חָכְמָה
ḥokhmāh
GROWS FROM
חכם
ḥ-k-m
Be wise or skillful.
Chokhmah is wisdom with the sense of skill and discernment, not only information. What is taught is a way of understanding well, something that can shape how a person sees and responds.
ALSO GROWS
ḥākām: A wise person, one skilled in judgment or action.
חָכָם
The branch shows wisdom as something embodied in how a person meets life.
ḥokhmāh: Wisdom, skill, or discernment.
חָכְמָה
The same root names both wisdom and the capacity to exercise it.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom grows where hearing is given room before speech.
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.THE THREAD
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:Both verses use שמע (shamaʿ, hear and respond) for the wise person’s receiving. Job places quiet before instruction; Proverbs shows hearing as the way learning increases.
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