What Does Job 41:34 Mean in the King James?
He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.
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 proud are not the summit here: they are subjects beneath a king who sees every height.
THE MEANING
Leviathan stands in view as king over every child of pride, while every high thing lies within his sight. The repeated “all” makes the image total: neither loftiness nor pride sits outside its reach. Arrogance has a place in the order of things, but never the highest place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that loftiness makes a person sovereign: here, the children of pride are subjects, not rulers.
THE ROOT
שַׁחַץ
shachats
GROWS FROM
שׁחץ
Pride or haughtiness; a proud, fierce force.
The same Hebrew phrase בְּנֵי־שָׁחַץ (benei-shachats) appears in Job 28:8, where the KJV renders it “the lion’s whelps.” The language lets pride carry the image of fierce, untamed offspring: the king here rules a force that is both arrogant and beastly.
ALSO GROWS
shachats: Pride or haughtiness.
שַׁחַץ
This is the word behind “pride” in the verse, naming the force whose offspring are under the king.
benei-shachats: Sons or children of pride; rendered “the lion’s whelps” in Job 28:8.
בְּנֵי־שָׁחַץ
That rendering links pride’s offspring with fierce, untamed creatures, revealing an animal force beneath the English abstraction.
מֶלֶךְ
melekh
GROWS FROM
מלך
To reign or rule; kingship.
The word for king grows from the root of reigning, so kingship here is active dominion, not merely a title. The verse presents pride’s offspring as a domain over which Leviathan exercises rule.
ALSO GROWS
malakh: To reign or become king.
מָלַךְ
This verb exposes the action inside “king”: the verse describes dominion over the proud.
mamlakhah: Kingdom or realm.
מַמְלָכָה
The shared root makes the “children of pride” sound like a realm under Leviathan’s rule.
גָּבֹהַּ
gavoah
GROWS FROM
גבה
To be high, elevated, or exalted.
“high” in this verse is gavoah. The verse places everything elevated within Leviathan’s sight, then names him king over pride. Height is not presented as self-sufficient power; it is seen within a larger order of rule.
ALSO GROWS
gabah: To be high or exalted.
גָּבַהּ
The verb behind “high” makes elevation an action or condition, not proof of sovereignty.
gōbah: Height or elevation.
גֹּבַהּ
This noun from the same root makes the verse’s “high things” part of the same family as being exalted.
THE PATTERN
A claim to height is never self-ruling: the text places lofty things and proud forces under a power that sees and orders them.
Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.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.He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.THE THREAD
The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.The Hebrew phrase בְּנֵי־שָׁחַץ (benei-shachats), “children of pride,” appears here too, where the KJV calls them “the lion’s whelps.” English makes one verse speak of pride and the other of predators; the shared phrase joins pride to fierce, untamed force.
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