What Does Job 40:12 Mean in the King James?
Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.
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 turns sight into a test of sovereignty: seeing the proud is not the same as having power to bring them down.
THE MEANING
The challenge separates seeing from judgment: identifying those who stand proud is one thing; lowering them and crushing the wicked where they stand demands authority. Its force is severe and physical; the proud are not merely corrected in thought, and the wicked are not spared the image of trampling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief this undoes is that seeing what is wrong gives you the power to put it right.
THE ROOT
וְהַשְׁפִּילֵהוּ
wehashpilēhû
GROWS FROM
שפל
Be low or humble; in the causative form, make low or bring down.
The verb translated “bring him low” is a causative form of שפל (shāphal, “be low; bring low”): the command makes the proud occupy the low condition the root names. The same root gives the condition of being low and the act of lowering someone, so this is a change in standing, not merely a change in thought.
ALSO GROWS
shāphēl: Be low; be humble.
שָׁפֵל
Names the low condition the command imposes on the proud.
hishpîl: Lower; bring down.
הִשְׁפִּיל
The causative form makes the root’s low condition an action done to someone.
shephelāh: Lowland; low country.
שְׁפֵלָה
The root also describes low ground, giving the verse’s downward movement a concrete shape.
THE PATTERN
Human elevation cannot secure the proud from being brought low.
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.THE THREAD
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.The verb for “bring him low” here and the humbling in Isaiah 2:11 belong to שפל (shāphal, “be low; bring low”). Isaiah makes the reversal explicit: human height falls while the LORD alone is exalted.
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