What Does Job 4:18 Mean in the King James?
Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:
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 verse uses “trust” as a question of firmness: even a messenger is not presented as beyond error.
THE MEANING
This line brings service and message-bearing under scrutiny: closeness to the divine does not make a messenger incapable of error. The One who sends them still finds folly in them, so a title or commission does not certify flawless reliability.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a messenger’s divine commission guarantees flawless reliability.
THE ROOT
יַאֲמִין
yaʾamin
GROWS FROM
אָמַן
ʾ-m-n
To be firm or steady; the verb means to regard someone as reliable.
The verb translated “trust” comes from a root that carries the sense of firmness and steadiness. Its branches preserve that connection: trust is tied to what is firm, and even a messenger’s role does not make that messenger the source of certainty.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Trust, steadfastness; confidence that leans its full weight on another.
אֱמוּנָה
This branch makes the verse’s question concrete: whether a servant can be regarded as steady enough to trust.
amen: Firmly; truly; so be it.
אָמֵן
The familiar response carries the same sense of firmness, showing how the root links trust with what can stand.
THE PATTERN
A being’s office does not make it a self-sufficient ground of trust; even rulers and messengers remain subject to scrutiny.
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;THE THREAD
Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.This verse repeats the same trust verb, יַאֲמִין (yaʾamin), from the root אָמַן (ʾ-m-n), “to be firm, steady.” It extends the scrutiny from servants and messengers to the heavens themselves, revealing the question as one of creaturely firmness.
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