What Does Job 40:18 Mean in the King James?
His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
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 Hebrew root behind “bones” also carries the sense of strength, locating the creature’s might in its inner frame.
THE MEANING
The creature’s bones are described as bronze and iron, so its strength belongs to the frame that bears its body. The verse makes that hidden structure part of what is visible now: the body’s force rests in what is beneath its surface.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Strength is only an outward display. This verse locates it in the inner structure that bears the body.
THE ROOT
עֲצָמָיו
atzamav
GROWS FROM
ע־צ־ם
ʿ-ṣ-m
Bone or substance; the same root also yields the sense of being strong or mighty.
The word translated “bones” comes from עצם, which also forms עָצוּם (atzum), “mighty.” Hebrew holds bone and strength in the same word family: the creature’s might is carried in its own frame, rather than fitted onto it from outside.
ALSO GROWS
etsem: Bone; substance or frame.
עֶצֶם
This is the singular form behind the verse’s word for bones, placing the creature’s strength in its bodily frame.
atzum: Mighty, strong.
עָצוּם
This related form makes the root’s link between the body’s bones and strength audible.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents the hidden bodily frame as a bearer of strength, health, and integrity.
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.THE THREAD
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.Job’s “bones” and Psalm’s “substance” share the Hebrew word family עצם (etsem), bone or frame. Job describes strength carried by that hidden structure; Psalm says the same frame is not hidden from sight.
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