What Does Job 33:7 Mean in the King James?
Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.
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 root behind “heavy” also gives us kavod, “weight” and “glory,” so this verse imagines power that can be present without pressing you down.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now as a claim that power can come near without becoming terror or pressure: you are not made afraid, and the hand above you does not weigh you down. Its assurance rests on what power refuses to do, not on pretending power is absent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that authority must make you afraid or press down on you to be real.
THE ROOT
יִכְבַּד
yikbad
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty.
English “heavy” suggests pressure, but the same root yields kavod, weight, honor, and glory. The verse turns on what power does with its weight: this hand will not bear down on you.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: Weight, honor, glory.
כָּבוֹד
The root links heaviness with honor and glory, showing that weight itself is not the harm; what matters is whether power presses down.
hikhbid: To make heavy; to increase a burden.
הִכְבִּיד
This causative form names imposed heaviness, clarifying what the speaker says his hand will not do.
THE PATTERN
Power can be present without using fear or weight to break the vulnerable.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.THE THREAD
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.The same root, כבד (k-b-d), meaning “to be heavy,” describes Moses’ hands here and the hand in Job’s assurance. Moses’ hands are held up so their weight does not overcome him; Job’s speaker says his hand will not weigh upon you.
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