What Does Job 4:5 Mean in the King James?
But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
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
Pain can remain an idea at a distance until it reaches you, and then its weight is felt.
THE MEANING
When hardship comes upon you and touches your life directly, weariness and alarm can arrive together. The verse names that response plainly: nearness changes what you can carry.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that understanding another person’s pain from the outside means you will stay steady when trouble reaches you.
THE ROOT
תִּגַּע
tigaʿ from nāgaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
To touch, reach, or affect; in some forms, to strike or inflict.
The root behind “toucheth” also names a blow or affliction. English can make touch sound slight; the shared root holds contact and impact together.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaʿ: To make contact with or reach someone.
נָגַע
This verb marks the moment suffering crosses from distant to immediate.
negaʿ: A stroke, plague, or afflicting mark.
נֶגַע
The same consonants let “touch” shade into a harmful blow: the contact carries force.
וַתִּבָּהֵל
vatibbāhēl
GROWS FROM
בהל
To become alarmed, dismayed, or hurried.
The Hebrew root points to sudden dismay, giving “troubled” the edge of alarm rather than vague unease. The verse moves from contact to an inner jolt.
ALSO GROWS
behālāh: Sudden terror or alarm.
בֶּהָלָה
This noun shows how the root can name the shock that follows when trouble arrives.
nibhāl: To become startled or dismayed.
נִבְהַל
This verbal form echoes the verse’s response: being touched by trouble can leave a person inwardly shaken.
THE PATTERN
Suffering becomes personally real when it reaches someone directly.
The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,THE THREAD
My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?The Hebrew word behind “sore vexed” comes from the same בָּהַל (bāhal), meaning to become alarmed or dismayed, as “troubled” in Job. The shared root makes Job’s alarm and the Psalm’s distress sound like the same inward jolt.
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