What Does Job 35:13 Mean in the King James?

Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.

Job 35:13 · KJV

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 hearing here is receptive attention, so empty speech does not command the Almighty’s regard.

THE MEANING

This verse speaks now to words that are plentiful but empty: they do not compel God’s attention. It distinguishes sound being spoken from speech being received with regard. Its claim is stark: the Almighty does not treat vanity as a call that must be answered.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that speaking a request obligates God to regard it; this verse says empty speech does not compel that response.

THE ROOT

יִשְׁמַע

yishma

GROWS FROM

שמע

shama

Hear, listen, receive.

This root reaches from listening to a report that is heard and to making something heard. Its range gives “hear” the depth of receptive attention, not mere sound detection; here, empty speech receives no such regard.

ALSO GROWS

shema: Hear; listen.

שְׁמַע

The imperative form shows hearing as an active reception, the sense that gives weight to the verse’s contrast.

shemuah: A report or tidings.

שְׁמוּעָה

A report is something carried to be heard, linking hearing with communication received.

hishmia: To make heard; announce.

הִשְׁמִיעַ

The causative form extends the root from receiving speech to bringing it into hearing.

THE PATTERN

Scripture presents divine hearing as receptive attention to a truthful call, not an automatic response to empty words.

The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

Psalm 34:17 · KJVThe cry is received, and that hearing opens into deliverance.

The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

Psalm 145:18 · KJVThe call is joined to truth, contrasting with the vanity named in Job.

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

1 John 5:14 · KJVHearing is portrayed as a response to a request brought into alignment with God’s will.

THE THREAD

The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

Psalm 34:17 · KJV

Job’s “hear” and the Psalm’s “heareth” share the root ⁨שמע⁩ (shama, hear or listen), tying divine hearing to receptive attention. The Psalm shows what that reception can open into: deliverance from trouble.

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