What Does Job 34:23 Mean in the King James?
For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God.
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
God’s judgment is not an accumulating burden: what he lays upon a person never exceeds what is right.
THE MEANING
What is laid upon you has a measure: God does not set more on a person than is right. The judgment you face is not excess or caprice; it takes place before God, whose measure holds.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that God’s judgment can be arbitrary or excessive; the verse says he does not lay more upon a person than is right.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
shaphat
To judge or decide; to render judgment.
The root connects the act of judging, the judge, and the judgment itself. Here, “more than right” places a limit on that judgment: it does not become excess.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or decide.
שָׁפַט
Names the action from which mishpat, judgment, comes.
shofet: A judge, one who decides.
שֹׁפֵט
Shows the same root naming the one who carries out judgment.
mishpatim: Judgments or rulings.
מִשְׁפָּטִים
Shows the root extending from a judgment to decisions and rulings.
לַהֲלֹךְ
lahalokh
GROWS FROM
הלך
halakh
To go or walk.
The Hebrew verb behind “enter” is from הלך (halakh, go or walk): the person goes before God in judgment. The phrase pictures judgment as an encounter one goes into, not only a verdict imposed from afar.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: To go or walk.
הָלַךְ
The base verb carries the movement rendered here as entering judgment.
halikhah: Going or walking.
הֲלִיכָה
Makes the root’s concrete sense of movement visible in the phrase.
halakhah: A way of going; conduct or practice.
הֲלָכָה
Shows the root extending from movement to a path one follows.
THE PATTERN
God sees each person’s way and judges without exceeding what is right.
For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.Who will render to every man according to his deeds:THE THREAD
And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.Both verses use מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, judgment), from שָׁפַט (shaphat, to judge or decide). Psalm 9:8 names the quality of that judgment, uprightness, which illuminates Job’s claim that God does not lay more upon a person than is right.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us