What Does Job 39:14 Mean in the King James?
Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,
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 verb behind “leaveth” can also mean “forsake,” letting one image hold both warmth and abandonment.
THE MEANING
The eggs are left in the earth and warmed in the dust. The scene holds care and exposure together: warmth does not make the eggs safe. That tension remains recognizable now, wherever something receives care while remaining vulnerable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Warmth alone means something is safe; this verse holds warmth and vulnerability together.
THE ROOT
תַּעֲזֹב
taʿazov
GROWS FROM
עזב
ʿ-z-b
to leave, forsake, or abandon
The verb translated “leaveth” comes from עזב, a root that can mean leave, forsake, or abandon. That range gives the word a sharper edge than mere placement, while the verse’s warmth keeps abandonment from being the whole picture.
ALSO GROWS
ʿazuv: left, forsaken
עָזוּב
This form shows how the root can describe the state of being left behind, making the eggs’ exposure audible in Job’s wording.
ʿazuvah: forsaken, abandoned
עֲזוּבָה
Isaiah 62:4 uses this form for “Forsaken”; it makes the abandonment sense shared with Job’s verb visible.
THE PATTERN
Life unfolds through the ground’s hidden conditions, beyond what visible care can fully control.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?The Hebrew verb behind “leaveth” in Job shares the root עזב with “forsaken” in this cry. Psalm 22 makes the root’s sharper sense audible, echoing the exposure held within Job’s image.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us