What Does Job 6:25 Mean in the King James?
How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?
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 Hebrew repeats one root for “arguing” and “reprove,” asking whether your correction can actually prove its charge.
THE MEANING
Straight words carry force because they hold to what is true, not because they are loud or harsh. The verse asks what a rebuke actually establishes about the person it targets. Correction can sound certain and still fail to prove its case.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A forceful rebuke is not automatically a true one; severity alone does not establish the charge.
THE ROOT
יוֹכִיחַ
yôkîaḥ
GROWS FROM
יכח
To prove, decide a case, correct, or rebuke.
“arguing / reprove” in this verse is yôkîaḥ. Job places two forms of יכח (y-kh-ch) together: what does your reproof prove? The shared root links correction with establishing a case, but a rebuke does not prove its own accusation just by being spoken.
ALSO GROWS
tôḵēḥāh: Rebuke or reproof.
תּוֹכֵחָה
This noun comes from the same root as the reproof in Job’s question.
nivvākheḥāh: Let us reason together or settle the matter together.
נִוָּכְחָה
Isaiah uses this form of the same root in an invitation to reason together, showing that יכח can describe a shared examination, not only an accusation.
יֹשֶׁר
yōsher
GROWS FROM
ישר
To be straight, level, or upright.
“right” in this verse is yōsher. The Hebrew phrase means “words of straightness.” Their force comes from staying true to the line, giving the verse a clear measure for speech and correction alike.
ALSO GROWS
yāshār: Straight or upright.
יָשָׁר
This adjective makes explicit the root’s image of straightness behind “right words.”
mîshôr: A level place or plain.
מִישׁוֹר
This branch keeps the root’s concrete image of a level, unbent course.
THE PATTERN
Speech carries weight through truth, and correction earns trust by what it can actually establish.
All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.THE THREAD
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.“Reason together” translates נִוָּכְחָה (nivvākheḥāh), from the same root יכח as Job’s “arguing” and “reprove.” The shared root connects rebuke with bringing a matter into the open and examining what is true.
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