What Does Job 34:31 Mean in the King James?
Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more:
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 verse joins what has been carried with a refusal to carry harm forward.
THE MEANING
The weight already borne is real, and the harm need not continue. What has happened does not have to dictate what happens next.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being chastened only names what has happened; the verse also names a refusal to keep doing harm.
THE ROOT
נָשָׂאתִי
nasa'ti
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
To lift, carry, or bear.
The word carries the sense of bearing weight, giving force to the speaker’s acknowledgment of what has been borne. Its family also names a burden and one who is lifted, keeping carrying and lifting within the same root.
ALSO GROWS
massa: A burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
This branch makes the weight in “I have borne” tangible.
nasi: A prince or leader; literally, one lifted up.
נָשִׂיא
This branch shows the root’s other movement: what is carried or lifted can also describe one raised up.
אֶחֱבֹל
echbol
GROWS FROM
חבל
chabal
To bind or pledge; in another attested use, to damage or ruin.
The verb translated “offend” can carry the force of doing damage or ruining. The speaker’s words therefore name an end to continued harm, not merely an intention to avoid a minor slip.
ALSO GROWS
chevel: A cord or rope.
חֶבֶל
This branch carries the root’s sense of binding.
mechabbelim: Destroyers or spoilers.
מְחַבְּלִים
This branch shows the root’s force in the sense of damaging or ruining.
THE PATTERN
Naming what has been borne alongside a refusal to continue harm opens a path toward release.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.Job’s “I have borne” and Isaiah’s “he hath borne” share נשא (nasa), to carry or bear. The same root holds both the weight one bears and the carrying of another’s grief.
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