What Does Job 34:11 Mean in the King James?
For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.
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 verb “render” shares the root שׁלם (sh-l-m, to make whole or complete) with שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness): what is done comes to its full measure and meets its doer.
THE MEANING
What you do does not disappear from view: God meets each person with what corresponds to their work and way. The verse presents this as a direct relationship between the path you take and what you find.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what you do can vanish without being met, or that what you find is unrelated to the way you walk.
THE ROOT
יְשַׁלֵּם
yəšallēm
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; in this verb form, to repay or recompense.
The Hebrew verb translated “render” carries the sense of settling or bringing something to its full measure. Its root also gives שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), linking the return of a person’s work with a measure brought to completion.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch shows the root’s sense of completeness beneath the verse’s idea of a measured return.
shalem: Whole, complete, intact.
שָׁלֵם
The related form helps show why repayment can carry the sense of settling what is due.
shillēm: Repaid, recompensed; made good.
שִׁלֵּם
This verbal form makes explicit the connection between the root and the verse’s word “render.”
THE PATTERN
What a person sets in motion returns to meet them in a measure corresponding to their way.
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.Psalm 62:12 uses the same שׁלם (sh-l-m, make whole or complete) root for “renderest,” pairing it with “according to his work.” The shared verb ties both verses to the image of a return brought to its full measure.
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