What Does Job 34:18 Mean in the King James?
Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly?
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 Hebrew behind “ungodly” carries the concrete sense “not straight”: the verse weighs a ruler’s conduct against the title they hold.
THE MEANING
The question places serious moral charges beside the titles of king and prince. In the surrounding argument, rank does not win anyone special regard before God. The verse speaks now wherever authority and uprightness are being weighed.
THE ROOT
לֹא־יָשָׁר
lo-yashar
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ר
y-sh-r
to be straight, level, or right
The phrase translated “ungodly” is lo-yashar, “not straight/right.” The same root gives words for uprightness and level ground, making the charge a picture of conduct measured for straightness.
ALSO GROWS
yosher: uprightness, integrity
יֹשֶׁר
It names the quality the accusation says is missing.
mishor: level ground; a level or even way
מִישׁוֹר
Its image of levelness makes moral straightness tangible.
THE PATTERN
Rank does not bend divine judgment toward the powerful.
How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands.Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:For there is no respect of persons with God.THE THREAD
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.Job calls the princes lo-yashar, “not straight”; Proverbs uses the same root when God makes paths straight. The shared root links crooked conduct with a way brought into alignment.
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