What Does Job 5:18 Mean in the King James?
For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
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 hands make whole by releasing: restoration is pictured as the loosening of what has been held tight.
THE MEANING
The verse holds hurt and repair together: the wound is named, then bound, while the hands release what is constricted toward wholeness. The injury is not hidden from view; its mending meets it directly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a wound proves wholeness is forever lost: the same line names injury, binding, and restoration together.
THE ROOT
תִּרְפֶּינָה
tirpenah
GROWS FROM
רפה
raphah
To loosen, release, or let the hands drop.
The word rendered “make whole” is תִּרְפֶּינָה (tirpenah, “they make whole”), from רפה (raphah, “release, let go”). The same root can name stillness or letting go, so this verse pictures wholeness as what emerges when the grip loosens.
ALSO GROWS
harpu: Be still; release.
הַרְפּוּ
Psalm 46:10 uses the same root: “Be still” carries the sense of letting go, joining release with the wholeness named here.
vayyiref: He let go; he let him go.
וַיִּרֶף
Exodus 4:26 uses the root for an actual release, showing the same movement from holding on to letting go.
וְיַחְבָּשׁ
veyachbash
GROWS FROM
חבש
ḥābash
To bind, wrap, or strap in place.
“bindeth up” in this verse is veyachbash. חָבַשׁ (ḥābash, “bind or wrap”) names both dressing a wound and saddling an animal. The verse’s binding is hands-on care: what is injured is secured and tended, while the next verb names its release.
ALSO GROWS
laḥavosh: To bind up.
לַחֲבֹשׁ
Isaiah 61:1 uses this root for binding up the brokenhearted, extending the wound-care image from the body to inner hurt.
vayyaḥavosh: And he saddled.
וַיַּחֲבֹשׁ
Genesis 22:3 uses the same root for saddling a donkey: what is bound or fitted is prepared to move.
THE PATTERN
Repair meets the wound directly, binding what is injured and opening a way toward wholeness.
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.THE THREAD
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.Psalm 46:10 uses הַרְפּוּ (harpu, “be still; release”), from the same root רפה (raphah, “loosen, let go”) as Job’s תִּרְפֶּינָה (tirpenah, “make whole”). English separates stillness from healing; the shared root joins both to release.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us