What Does Job 4:13 Mean in the King James?
In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,
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 word translated “thoughts” pictures branching divisions, placing the night vision where thoughts branch and waking awareness falls away.
THE MEANING
Your thoughts can still branch as deep sleep falls; the verse places vision in that threshold where waking awareness loosens. What appears there comes as a night vision, not as a conclusion assembled by deliberate reasoning.
THE ROOT
סְעִפִּים
se'ippim
GROWS FROM
סעף
To split or branch apart.
The KJV’s “thoughts” is a rare word that also names branching divisions and appears for competing “opinions.” The image lets the phrase hold both mental movement and division: thoughts branch through the night as awareness sinks.
ALSO GROWS
se'ippim: Divided thoughts, rendered “vain thoughts” in the KJV.
The same word shows how a thought can split or branch, echoing Job’s thoughts in the night.
ha-se'ippim: Divisions or branches, rendered “two opinions” in the KJV.
Here the root makes division explicit, illuminating the branching image inside Job’s “thoughts.”
תַּרְדֵּמָה
tardemah
GROWS FROM
רדם
To sink into deep sleep.
This root names a profound sleep, and its noun and verb forms appear where the sleeper’s awareness has receded. In this verse, branching thoughts and deep sleep meet at the edge of waking consciousness.
ALSO GROWS
nirdam: In a deep sleep.
The related verb form keeps the sense of sinking into profound sleep.
tardemah: Deep sleep.
The same noun places a deep sleep alongside an overwhelming night encounter.
THE PATTERN
Vision and encounter can arrive as ordinary waking awareness recedes into sleep.
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.THE THREAD
I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.The rare Hebrew word translated “thoughts” in Job appears here too, where the KJV calls them “vain thoughts.” Its root carries the image of branching or divided thoughts, so the night vision begins amid a mind whose thoughts are still splitting into branches.
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