What Does Job 4:6 Mean in the King James?
Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
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’s “uprightness” carries the sense of wholeness: reverence, confidence, hope, and the path of your life are held together as one.
THE MEANING
The verse places your fear, confidence, hope, and the integrity of your ways in one question, as parts of a single inner life. Its word for uprightness carries the sense of wholeness, so your path appears as something integrated rather than a series of isolated acts.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the assumption that fear and confidence cancel each other out: here, fear is named alongside confidence and hope, as something that can hold them together.
THE ROOT
תֹּם
tōm
GROWS FROM
תמם
t-m-m
To be complete or whole.
“Uprightness” can sound like a straight line of correct behavior, but תֹּם (tōm, integrity or completeness) points to wholeness. The root’s branches describe what is whole and sound, so the phrase reaches beyond outward conduct to the integrity of the whole path.
ALSO GROWS
tām: Complete; blameless.
תָּם
This adjective from the same root describes a person as whole, bringing the verse’s integrity into the person’s character.
tāmîm: Whole; sound; without defect.
תָּמִים
This branch applies completeness to what is intact, illuminating uprightness as an undivided way.
tummāh: Integrity.
תֻּמָּה
This noun from the same root names the quality the verse attributes to the reader’s ways.
יִרְאָתְךָ
yirʾātekha
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear or revere; awe when directed toward God.
The root links the noun “fear” to the verb “fear or revere,” holding an inner posture and its expression in one word family. In this question, that posture stands beside confidence and hope, where fear is not automatically their opposite.
ALSO GROWS
yārēʾ: One who fears or reveres.
יָרֵא
This form names the person who bears the posture expressed by “thy fear” in the verse.
yîrāʾ: He will fear or revere.
יִירָא
This verb form shows the same root as an ongoing response, not only a named disposition.
THE PATTERN
Integrity is wholeness that makes a person’s path steady.
A Psalm of David. Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide.He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.THE THREAD
And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.The word תֻּמָּה (tummāh, “integrity”) here comes from the same root, תמם (t-m-m, “to be complete or whole”), as תֹּם (tōm, “integrity or completeness”) in Job 4:6. Together, the verses place this wholeness both in the person and in the path of their ways.
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