What Does Job 40:20 Mean in the King James?
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
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 word for play also carries the sense of laughter, so the scene joins wild nourishment with exuberant life.
THE MEANING
The verse shows the mountains yielding food while the creatures of the field play. The Hebrew verb carries both play and laughter, letting the scene hold nourishment and unguarded animal life together. The wilderness is a place where creatures are fed and have room to play.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the assumption that the wild is only scarcity and struggle: here, food and play share the same landscape.
THE ROOT
יְשַׂחֲקוּ
yəśaḥăqû
GROWS FROM
שׂחק
To laugh, play, or make sport.
The Hebrew verb holds play and laughter within one word. English can make the scene sound like mere animal activity, while the root also gives it a note of laughter: the creatures are not only fed, they play.
ALSO GROWS
śeḥoq: Laughter.
שְׂחוֹק
This noun makes audible the laughter already held within the field creatures’ play.
məśaḥăqîm: Playing; those who play.
מְשַׂחֲקִים
This form is used for children playing in the streets, showing the same root can describe play across human and animal life.
THE PATTERN
The living world receives provision within the places where its creatures flourish.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?THE THREAD
There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.The same Hebrew root, שׂחק (ś-ḥ-q), describes the creatures playing on the land and Leviathan playing at sea. The parallel opens the verse into a wider scene where wild creatures have room for play in the places they inhabit.
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