What Does Job 6:17 Mean in the King James?
What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
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 stream is not merely reduced by heat; the words picture it being cut off and extinguished.
THE MEANING
Something that seems dependable while conditions favor it can vanish when the heat comes. Here the flow loses its place and goes out, leaving no trace of the abundance it seemed to promise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that what appears abundant now must be dependable: a flow can disappear when its conditions change.
THE ROOT
נִדְעֲכוּ
nidʿakhu
GROWS FROM
דעך
daʿakh
To go out, die down, or be extinguished.
The word translated “consumed” is also used of a flame or light going out. The stream’s disappearance and a light’s extinction share one root, making the heat seem to snuff out what had looked present.
ALSO GROWS
daʿakh: To go out or be extinguished.
דָּעַךְ
The basic form makes the stream’s loss resemble a flame dying down.
yidʿakh: Will go out or be extinguished.
יִדְעָךְ
This form describes a light going out, echoing the stream’s extinction in this verse.
נִצְמָתוּ
nitzmatu
GROWS FROM
צמת
tsamat
To cut off or bring to an end; by extension, to disappear.
“vanish” in this verse is nitzmatu. The Hebrew word carries the force of being cut off, not simply becoming less visible. The stream’s disappearance is abrupt: heat ends the flow that once filled its channel.
ALSO GROWS
tsamat: To cut off or bring to an end.
צָמַת
The basic form reveals the force behind the stream’s vanishing.
haṣmithem: Cut them off.
הַצְמִיתֵם
This command form uses the same root for bringing something to an end, sharpening the finality of the stream’s disappearance.
THE PATTERN
What depends on favorable conditions can disappear when the heat arrives.
O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.THE THREAD
Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.The Hebrew word translated “put out” shares the root דעך with “consumed” in this verse. There a light goes out; here a stream does, the same root reveals their shared image of extinction.
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