What Does Job 34:25 Mean in the King James?
Therefore he knoweth their works, and he overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed.
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 knowing here is already judgment: the one who sees their work overturns the people behind it.
THE MEANING
God knows what you do even in the night, and he can overturn the power built around it. The result is crushing judgment: the people themselves are brought down.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that secrecy or power can place a person’s conduct beyond judgment dissolves here: the deed and its consequences remain under God’s knowing.
THE ROOT
וְהָפַךְ
wehāphakh
GROWS FROM
הפך
h-p-k
Turn, change, overturn
“overturneth” in this verse is wehāphakh. The root holds transformation and overthrow together, giving this judgment the force of a reversal in state. What can be turned into something else can also be turned over; here the powerful are brought down.
ALSO GROWS
wayyahaphokh: Turned over, overturned
וַיַּהֲפֹךְ
The same verb depicts the cities’ total overthrow, showing that this root can name a reversal that reaches everything in its path.
wenehephakta: Be changed, transformed
וְנֶהְפַּכְתָּ
The root also names a person being transformed, so Job’s overthrow carries the same basic motion of changing a state.
וְיִדַּכָּאוּ
weyiddakkāʾû
GROWS FROM
דכא
d-k-ʾ
Crush, beat down, break down
The verb translated “destroyed” says that they are crushed. The root keeps the force of breaking someone down, and it can also describe the crushed condition called “contrite.”
ALSO GROWS
dakke'ei: Crushed, brought low
דַּכְּאֵי
The same root describes a person in a crushed condition, showing the shared core beneath the English words “destroyed” and “contrite.”
medukkaʾ: Bruised, crushed
מְדֻכָּא
The root describes physical violence there too, preserving the force of Job’s outcome.
THE PATTERN
Night and secrecy conceal no deed from God, whose judgment can bring human power down.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.THE THREAD
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.Job’s “destroyed” and Isaiah’s “bruise” use the same root, דכא (d-k-ʾ), “crush.” The shared verb keeps Job’s judgment concrete and bodily, while Isaiah turns the root toward a different subject and exposes the word’s full force.
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