What Does Job 36:11 Mean in the King James?
If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
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 condition begins with a verb for hearing: the verse locates a good life in hearing that becomes response, then service.
THE MEANING
If you hear and serve him, your days are spent in goodness and your years in what is pleasant. The verse holds service and pleasure together: a life turned toward God is pictured as one whose ordinary time is filled with goodness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that serving God means a joyless life: the same promise names years of pleasure.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁמְעוּ
yishme'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
shama
Hear; in context, hear and respond.
“obey” in this verse is yishme'u. The Hebrew verb means “they hear,” with the sense of responding to what is heard. The promise begins in receptive attention that becomes a lived response.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
It shows that the verse’s “obey” is rooted in hearing that moves into response.
shemu'ah: A report or message heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps the root’s sense of receiving what is heard, the beginning of the response described here.
יַעֲבֹדוּ
ya'avodu
GROWS FROM
עבד
avad
Work, labor, serve.
“serve” in this verse is ya'avodu. The verse pairs hearing with work directed toward God. Service reaches into the shape of daily labor, not only a separate religious moment.
ALSO GROWS
eved: A servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
The person serving belongs to the same word family as the action in the verse.
avodah: Work or service.
עֲבֹדָה
It reveals the everyday labor contained within the word translated “serve.”
בַּטּוֹב
ba-tov
GROWS FROM
טוב
tov
Good; goodness or well-being.
“prosperity” in this verse is ba-tov. The phrase is literally “in the good.” It can hold material well-being, while also describing days shaped by goodness in the broad texture of ordinary life.
ALSO GROWS
tov: Good or beneficial.
טוֹב
It is the core quality in which the verse says the days are spent.
tovah: Goodness or welfare.
טוֹבָה
This branch makes the promise wider than a single measure of success: it names a condition of well-being.
THE PATTERN
Hearing God in scripture becomes a lived response, taking shape as a life that follows his way.
And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.A Song of degrees. Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:THE THREAD
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.Job’s “obey” and Samuel’s “obey” and “hearken” share the root שָׁמַע (shama, hear and respond). The repeated root opens Job’s promise further: service begins with hearing the LORD’s voice as something answered.
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