What Does Job 41:12 Mean in the King James?
I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.
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 terror in Leviathan is not left shapeless: God names its parts, its prevailing force, and the order of its form.
THE MEANING
Leviathan stands fully in view: its parts, strength, and proportion all enter speech. Its formidable power and comely form remain together, neither hidden nor made harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what terrifies must remain vague or hidden: the creature is exposed in detail while still remaining formidable.
THE ROOT
אַחֲרִישׁ
ʾaḥărîš
GROWS FROM
חרש
Keep silent, hold one’s peace.
The KJV rendering “conceal” also carries the shade of not keeping silent: God brings Leviathan’s body into speech. A related form means “deaf,” so the root touches both what remains unspoken and what cannot hear.
ALSO GROWS
teḥĕraš: You keep silent.
תֶּחֱרַשׁ
The same form appears in Psalm 83:1’s plea, “Keep not thou silence”; Job’s line declares that God does speak about Leviathan.
ḥērēš: Deaf; one unable to hear.
חֵרֵשׁ
This related form links silence with deafness, sharpening the verse’s movement from what is unspoken to what is heard.
גְּבוּרֹת
gevurot
GROWS FROM
גבר
Be strong, prevail, prove mighty.
The word for Leviathan’s power comes from a root of prevailing: its force is what can hold its ground. In this family, might is not abstract; it is embodied in the mighty one.
ALSO GROWS
gibbôr: Mighty one; warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
This branch names a being marked by the same prevailing strength the verse assigns to Leviathan.
gevurah: Might; strength.
גְּבוּרָה
This form names the quality itself, joining the creature’s visible body to the force it carries.
עֶרְכוֹ
ʿerkō
GROWS FROM
ערך
Arrange, set in order.
The phrase rendered “comely proportion” includes the sense of Leviathan’s ordered arrangement. Its form is not merely imposing; the verse sees a body whose parts belong to a measure and design.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārakh: Arrange; set in order.
עָרַךְ
This root sense opens “proportion” onto the creature’s ordered structure.
maʿărākhāh: Arrangement; formation; array.
מַעֲרָכָה
This branch uses the same root for an ordered array, reinforcing that the verse sees form and proportion as a patterned whole.
THE PATTERN
Scripture brings overwhelming creatures into view by naming their form, force, and place in creation.
Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.THE THREAD
A Song or Psalm of Asaph. Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.The root חָרַשׁ (ḥāraš, “be silent”) links Job’s declaration that God will speak about Leviathan with the Psalm’s plea that God not keep silent. The shared word connects an open description of the creature with the cry for a voice.
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