What Does Job 34:28 Mean in the King James?
So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted.
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 powerful can cause the poor’s cry, but they cannot keep it from reaching God.
THE MEANING
The verse holds oppression and God’s hearing in the same frame: the poor cry out, and the afflicted are heard. Their suffering does not become invisible because they have little power.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the lie that the powerful can make the poor unheard by controlling what happens to them.
THE ROOT
צַעֲקַת
ṣaʿaqat
GROWS FROM
צעק
Cry aloud; call out, especially in distress.
Both halves of the verse repeat this root: the poor’s cry comes before God, and the afflicted’s cry is heard. The repetition keeps their distress present in the sentence rather than letting it disappear behind the oppressors’ actions.
ALSO GROWS
ṣāʿaq: To cry out or call aloud for help.
צָעַק
The verb beneath “cry” carries the sound of an appeal, not merely a description of suffering.
ṣəʿāqāh: An outcry or cry of distress.
צְעָקָה
This noun is also used for Israel’s cry under oppression in Exodus 3:7, linking the two passages through the same root.
יִשְׁמָע
yishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear; listen; give attention to what is heard.
“heareth” in this verse is yishmaʿ. The verse pairs the afflicted person’s cry with a verb for hearing, placing that cry within God’s attention. This same Hebrew root also forms words for listening and for a report, something received by hearing.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; listen.
שְׁמַע
The same root forms the direct call to hear, showing that this is attentive hearing rather than sound alone.
shemuʿah: A report or tidings; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch connects hearing with the message that reaches a listener.
THE PATTERN
The cry produced by oppression reaches God’s hearing.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;Exodus uses the same Hebrew root for “cry” and the same root for “heard” as Job does. Both verses hold oppression, a cry that reaches God, and God’s hearing together.
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