What Does Job 5:3 Mean in the King James?
I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
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
Taking root is not the same as being secure: the verse places active growth beside a sudden curse on the dwelling.
THE MEANING
A foolish life can put down roots, yet the dwelling it establishes is suddenly cursed. The verse holds both facts together: growth is happening, but the home is not beyond harm.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that visible growth proves a life is secure and will last. Here, the fool is already taking root when the dwelling is suddenly cursed.
THE ROOT
מַשְׁרִישׁ
mashrish
GROWS FROM
ש־ר־ש
sh-r-sh
Root; the word family describes taking root and, in another form, being rooted out.
“taking root” in this verse is mashrish. The Hebrew names an active process of becoming established, not a promise of safety. The same root can describe both sending roots down and being rooted out, so rootedness alone does not guarantee a lasting place.
ALSO GROWS
shoresh: A root; the hidden source from which growth rises.
שֹׁרֶשׁ
It makes the apparent stability an underground process: what is established outwardly has roots beneath the surface.
sharash: To send down roots; to become established.
שָׁרַשׁ
This is the action named in the verse: the fool is actively becoming rooted before the abrupt turn.
yeshorashu: To be uprooted; Job uses this form of offspring in Job 31:8.
יְשֹׁרָשׁוּ
The same root can name the undoing of what has taken root, exposing how establishment can be reversed.
THE PATTERN
Visible growth does not by itself secure a lasting place; rooted things may flourish or be uprooted.
Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.THE THREAD
Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.Psalm 80 uses the same Hebrew root for “take deep root,” but its rooted vine fills the land. The echo shows that the root itself is neither a guarantee of safety nor a promise of flourishing; the verse’s sudden curse makes the dwelling’s fate impossible to infer from growth alone.
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