What Does Job 7:19 Mean in the King James?
How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
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
Job asks for room from both God’s gaze and God’s grip: look away, release me, long enough for one swallow.
THE MEANING
Here, even swallowing becomes a measure of relief: the pressure feels so continuous that one swallow is the interval being requested. The verse gives words to the need for release from unbroken attention, however small that release may be.
THE ROOT
תַרְפֵּנִי
tarpeni
GROWS FROM
רפה
To slacken, loosen, or release.
The verb translated “let me alone” carries the sense of loosening or letting go. Relief here is pictured as pressure released, not as something added.
ALSO GROWS
hereph: Let go; cease.
הֶרֶף
The same root appears in “Cease from anger,” showing that Job’s words are a plea for the pressure to be released.
tirpenah: Grow slack; become weak.
תִּרְפֶּינָה
There the root describes hands going slack, revealing how release can mean force letting go.
תִּשְׁעֶה
tish'eh
GROWS FROM
שעה
To look, regard, or turn one’s gaze.
The word rendered “depart” describes turning the gaze away. The verse pairs that plea with “release me”: Job asks not only for distance, but for God’s unbroken attention and pressure to ease.
ALSO GROWS
vayyisha': Regarded; looked upon.
וַיִּשַׁע
The same root describes the LORD regarding Abel, so the word for looking away here also carries the sense of directed regard.
yish'eh: Looks toward; regards.
יִשְׁעֶה
A person looks toward the Maker with this same root, making Job’s request a plea for that gaze to turn away.
THE PATTERN
When distress presses without pause, relief is first named as room to stop before strength can return.
O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.THE THREAD
O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.Job’s “depart from me” and the psalmist’s “spare me” use the same Hebrew verb for turning the gaze away. The shared root makes both pleas a request for reprieve; the psalm names the strength that a little room can restore.
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