What Does Job 40:21 Mean in the King James?
He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
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
Even a creature of immense strength rests where it is hidden and covered.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two truths together for you now: strength can lie down, and concealment can be shelter. Your capacity does not cancel your need for a place where you are covered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being strong means never needing shelter.
THE ROOT
סֵתֶר
seter
GROWS FROM
סתר
to hide or conceal
“Covert” carries the sense of hiddenness: the creature rests within a place that conceals it. The same root can describe both the act of hiding and a place hidden from view, so the shelter here is also a kind of covering.
ALSO GROWS
satar: to hide, conceal
סָתַר
This verb is the root’s basic action, showing that the covert is a place defined by concealment.
mistar: hiding place, secret place
מִסְתָּר
This related form makes hiddenness a place to inhabit, illuminating how the creature’s cover becomes its resting place.
THE PATTERN
Living things find shelter in places where they can rest beneath what grows around them.
Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.THE THREAD
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.“Secret place” uses the same Hebrew word, סֵתֶר (seter), meaning a hidden place, as “covert” in Job. The shared root reveals shelter as a place of concealment where life can rest.
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