What Does Job 38:15 Mean in the King James?
And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.
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 light and strength of the wicked are both shown as things that can be withheld or broken.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of power that cannot secure itself: the wicked’s light is withheld, and the arm raised high is broken. Brightness and force do not make harm untouchable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that visible success or a raised hand makes wrongdoing invulnerable.
THE ROOT
יִמָּנַע
yimmānaʿ
GROWS FROM
מנע
Withhold, restrain, keep back.
“withholden” in this verse is yimmānaʿ. The root adds the sense of restraint: the wicked’s light is held back from them. The same root can describe refraining, so the image carries the idea of something being kept from action or access.
ALSO GROWS
mānaʿ: Withhold, keep back.
מָנַע
This active form shares the seed of the verse’s withheld light: something is deliberately held back.
nimnaʿ: Be restrained; refrain.
נִמְנַע
Here the same root describes holding back from action, echoing the restraint placed on the light.
תִּשָּׁבֵר
tishshāver
GROWS FROM
שבר
Break, shatter.
The root appears in forms for both breaking something and being broken. The raised arm is not merely lowered; the verse pictures its strength undergoing fracture.
ALSO GROWS
shāvar: Break, shatter.
שָׁבַר
The active form carries the force of breaking that the verse places upon the raised arm.
nishbar: Be broken, shattered.
נִשְׁבַּר
This passive form shares the verse’s image of strength that does not remain intact.
THE PATTERN
Power that rises high is not permanent; scripture depicts it being brought low.
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous.The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.THE THREAD
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous.Job’s תִּשָּׁבֵר (tishshāver, “shall be broken”) and Psalm’s “shall be broken” share שבר (sh-b-r; shāvar, “break”), and both verses name the wicked’s arm or arms. Psalm opens the contrast further: as their strength breaks, the LORD upholds the righteous.
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