What Does Job 42:2 Mean in the King James?
I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
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 word behind “withholden” also forms “fortress”: no purpose is sealed beyond God’s reach.
THE MEANING
You meet a God whose ability is not exhausted by what seems impossible and whose purpose cannot be barred from him. Even when you cannot see how a matter can move, its apparent inaccessibility does not define the reach of God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the assumption that a blocked path or an incomprehensible purpose must be beyond God’s reach.
THE ROOT
יִבָּצֵר
yibbāṣēr
GROWS FROM
בצר
b-ṣ-r
To cut off, make inaccessible, or be withheld; in this form, to be beyond reach or too difficult.
“withholden” in this verse is yibbāṣēr. The same root forms מִבְצָר (mibtsar), a fortress, and בָּצוּר (bātsūr), fortified or inaccessible. The verse’s image reaches beyond a thought being kept back: no purpose occupies a place too difficult or sealed off for God.
ALSO GROWS
mibtsar: Fortress; fortified place
מִבְצָר
A fortress is something made difficult to reach, echoing the verse’s language of what might seem inaccessible.
bātsūr: Fortified; inaccessible
בָּצוּר
This form makes the root’s sense of being beyond reach explicit, illuminating the claim that no purpose is beyond God.
יָדַעְתִּי
yādaʿtî
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, perceive, or recognize; knowing through encounter.
“I know” in this verse is yādaʿtî. The verb can describe intimate knowing as well as recognition, so Job’s opening words carry more than a report of information. His knowing is recognition of the one whose power and purpose cannot be confined.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge; perception
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows how the act of knowing and the state of knowledge share one seed.
vayyēdaʿ: And he knew
וַיֵּדַע
The same verb is used for Adam knowing Eve in Genesis 4:1, a form of knowing by intimate encounter.
THE PATTERN
What appears impossible or inaccessible does not limit God’s ability or purpose.
Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:For with God nothing shall be impossible.THE THREAD
For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:Job begins both declarations with the same Hebrew verb, יָדַעְתִּי (yādaʿtî), “I know.” The shared root joins his recognition of God’s unbounded capacity with his recognition that his redeemer lives.
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