What Does Job 34:33 Mean in the King James?
Should it be according to thy mind? he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest.
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 word for “recompense” grows from the same root as “wholeness,” so the verse places human preference beside a reckoning that answers to what is complete.
THE MEANING
Your preference does not set the terms of what is repaid. The verse puts refusal and choice beside a reckoning beyond your control, then turns to what you know and can speak.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that rejecting or choosing an outcome makes that outcome the measure of what is due.
THE ROOT
יְשַׁלְּמֶנָּה
yeshallmenah
GROWS FROM
שלם
š-l-m
To be complete or whole; in this verb form, to repay or make good.
“Recompense” comes from the same root family as שָׁלוֹם (shalom), wholeness. The connection lets repayment carry the sense of answering to what is complete or due, rather than being merely an arbitrary return.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This familiar branch shares the root with the verse’s word for recompense, linking repayment with the language of what is whole.
shillem: Repaid, made good.
שִׁלֵּם
This verb form makes the root’s connection to repayment explicit.
shelamim: Well-being or peace offerings.
שְׁלָמִים
This offering name also grows from the root of completeness and well-being.
תִבְחַר
tivchar
GROWS FROM
בחר
b-ḥ-r
To choose or select.
“choose” in this verse is tivchar. The verse names choosing directly, then asks whether the reckoning should be set according to that choice. The root’s other forms make the language of selection visible beneath the English.
ALSO GROWS
bachir: Chosen one.
בָּחִיר
The chosen one is the person marked by selection, the same action named in the verse.
mivchar: Choice, choice portion, or best selection.
מִבְחָר
This noun keeps the root’s sense of selecting and helps show how “choose” belongs to a wider word family.
יָדַעְתָּ
yadaʿta
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or become acquainted with.
“knowest” in this verse is yadaʿta. The ending does not ask for a preferred judgment; it asks for what is known to be spoken. The Hebrew root can describe knowing through recognition and encounter, giving the final words a more grounded sense than mere opinion.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun is formed from the same root and names the knowledge the verse asks to be spoken.
yodeaʿ: One who knows.
יֹדֵעַ
This participle makes the knowing person explicit, echoing the verse’s direct address to what you know.
THE PATTERN
The reckoning belongs to God and answers to what has been done, rather than to the preference of the person being weighed.
For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.THE THREAD
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.“Renderest” in Hebrew is תְּשַׁלֵּם (teshallem), from the same root שלם (š-l-m) as Job’s “recompense.” The shared root connects the two verses’ reckoning with the language of completeness and what is due.
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