What Does Job 7:20 Mean in the King James?
I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?
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’s confession of missing sits beside a sharper charge: the one he calls humanity’s keeper has made him the place where force lands.
THE MEANING
You can admit a real failure and still ask why pain makes you feel singled out. The one called the keeper of humanity is experienced here as making the speaker a target, until he feels like a burden to himself. Confession and protest stand together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that admitting your wrong removes your right to protest what is happening to you.
THE ROOT
מִפְגָּע
mifga
GROWS FROM
פגע
p-g-ʿ
to meet or encounter; in some forms, to strike or intercede
The noun for “mark” grows from a root that can describe meeting, striking, or interceding. Job feels placed where force meets him, while the same root can describe someone meeting others on their behalf, a hinge English hides.
ALSO GROWS
paga: meet, encounter, reach; sometimes strike or fall upon
פָּגַע
The target is the point where an encounter or force reaches someone.
hipgi'a: intercede, cause to meet, or make an appeal
הִפְגִּיעַ
The same root can describe meeting someone on behalf of another, as in Isaiah 53:12.
נֹצֵר
notzer
GROWS FROM
נצר
n-ts-r
to guard, keep, or watch over
“preserver” in this verse is notzer. This address names God as one actively watching and keeping humanity. That makes Job’s question cut sharply: the keeper is experienced as the one who sets him in the path of harm.
ALSO GROWS
natsar: guard, watch, keep, or preserve
נָצַר
The verb names the active keeping contained in Job’s address.
netzurei: preserved ones, those kept
נְצוּרֵי
The root can name both the keeper and those who are kept, making Job’s experience of being targeted especially stark.
חָטָאתִי
chatati
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
to miss, miss the mark, or fail to reach
“sinned” in this verse is chatati. The confession can be heard as “I have missed,” naming a failure to reach what is true or required. That admission does not answer Job’s next question: it sits beside, rather than dissolves, his complaint that he has been made a target.
ALSO GROWS
chet: missing, failure, or wrongdoing
חֵטְא
This noun carries the same “missing” sense into the confession Job makes.
chatta't: missing or sin; in ritual use, an offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
The root links the condition of missing with the language of what addresses it.
THE PATTERN
Lament names affliction as something aimed at a person or pressing beyond that person’s strength.
I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.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:THE THREAD
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.Job’s word for “mark” (מִפְגָּע, mifga) and Isaiah’s “made intercession” share the root פגע (paga), which can carry the senses of encounter, strike, and intercede. Job feels placed where force meets him; Isaiah uses the same root for one who meets transgressors on their behalf.
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