What Does Job 6:4 Mean in the King James?
For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.
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
Poison does more than pierce: it drinks the רוּחַ (ruach, breath) within while terror forms ranks against you.
THE MEANING
Right now, the verse names divine force as arrows lodged within you, their venom consuming the breath within. Terror also arranges itself against you, so the attack is both inward and surrounding.
THE ROOT
רוּחִי
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוּחַ
ruach
Breath, wind, moving air.
The word rendered “spirit” is רוּחַ (ruach), meaning breath as well as wind. The venom drinks away the inner breath itself; English separates meanings that Hebrew holds in one word.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: wind
רוּחַ
The same word names moving air outside you, linking the world’s wind with the breath within.
ruach: breath
רוּחַ
This is the breath the venom consumes, so the image reaches beyond an abstract inner life to the breath within.
חֲמָתָם
chamatam
GROWS FROM
יחם
yacham
To grow hot or become heated.
The word rendered “poison” also carries the sense of heat and fury. The verse joins bodily venom with burning anger, making the wound feel both toxic and hot.
ALSO GROWS
yacham: grow hot; become heated
יָחַם
This verb names the heat beneath the word’s range, keeping a burning force inside the image of poison.
chemah: heat, fury, venom or poison
חֵמָה
The same noun can name venom and fury, joining bodily injury with the force of terror in the verse.
יַעַרְכוּנִי
ya'arukhuni
GROWS FROM
ערך
arak
To arrange or set in order.
“array” in this verse is ya'arukhuni. The terrors do not merely appear; the verb says they arrange themselves against you. Its root gives anguish the shape of a deliberate formation, not a passing jolt.
ALSO GROWS
arak: arrange; set in order
עָרַךְ
This is the verb beneath the terrors’ action: they take their place against the speaker.
ma'arakhah: battle array; formation
מַעֲרָכָה
This related noun makes the military shape of the verse’s arranged threat visible.
THE PATTERN
Overwhelming anguish is pictured as force that enters the body and drains the inner life.
For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.THE THREAD
Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.Both verses use רוּחַ (ruach, breath): here venom drinks it, and in 7:11 its anguish becomes speech. The shared root connects the drained inner life to a voice that still names the pain.
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