What Does Job 4:12 Mean in the King James?
Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.
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 Hebrew makes the message a thing carried in secret: a davar is both a word and a matter, and the ear receives only a whisper of it.
THE MEANING
A message can reach you quietly, and your ear can receive only a trace of it. Something has arrived, even though only a little is taken in.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If I hear only a little, then nothing has reached me.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Word, matter, or thing; as a verb, to speak.
English “thing” can sound separate from speech, but davar can name both a matter and a word. The verse pictures the message as something with substance, carried to the ear and received.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form carries the same root from “word” or “matter” into the act of speaking.
devarim: Words or matters.
דְּבָרִים
This form keeps both senses in view: what is said and what is at issue.
יְגֻנָּב
yuggunnav
GROWS FROM
גנב
g-n-b
To steal or take secretly.
The verb translated “secretly brought” comes from the root for stealing. It makes the message’s arrival covert, as if slipped in without open announcement.
ALSO GROWS
gannav: Thief.
גַּנָּב
The same root names the one who takes something secretly.
genevah: Theft.
גְּנֵבָה
This noun names the hidden taking that gives the message its quiet manner of arrival.
וַתִּקַּח
wattiqqaḥ
GROWS FROM
לקח
l-q-ḥ
To take, take in, or receive.
The ear is the subject of this verb: it takes in the message. The wording gives hearing an active shape, while the smallness of what is received remains part of the verse.
ALSO GROWS
laqach: To take or receive.
לָקַח
This is the root verb behind the ear’s act of receiving.
leqaḥ: Instruction or teaching; what is taken in.
לֶקַח
This related noun links taking in with learning, echoing the ear’s reception of a small portion.
THE PATTERN
Important speech can reach the listener in a quiet or small form.
And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:THE THREAD
For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.Job 4:12 uses davar for a “word” or “thing”; Job 33:14 uses the same דבר root in “speaketh.” Together, they connect the word received in a whisper with the act of speaking, while leaving open whether the listener perceives it.
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