What Does Job 7:4 Mean in the King James?
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
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 is not simply awake in the night; he is filled to satiety with the motion of unrest.
THE MEANING
You can lie down and still be carried through an inner night of repeated motion, measuring time by the question of when relief will come. Here, restlessness becomes what fills the speaker until morning. The verse gives that exhaustion its full weight without claiming that daylight has already brought rest.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that lying down guarantees rest: the body can be still while the whole night is filled with motion.
THE ROOT
וְשָׂבַעְתִּי
wəśāvaʿtî
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
To be full, satisfied, or sated.
The root carries the sense of being filled to satisfaction, but here what fills the speaker is restless motion. The verse makes anguish a kind of satiety: the night leaves him full, but not at rest.
ALSO GROWS
sāvēaʿ: Full, satisfied, sated.
שָׂבֵעַ
This branch shows the familiar sense of fullness that Job’s restless fullness turns inside out.
śōvaʿ: Fullness, satiety.
שֹׂבַע
This noun names a state of being filled, clarifying how completely unrest occupies the night.
נְדֻדִים
nedudim
GROWS FROM
נדד
To move to and fro, wander, or flee.
“tossings to and fro” in this verse is nedudim. The root names wandering and flight, opening “tossings” into more than a single restless turn. It evokes an inner life that keeps moving without finding a place to settle.
ALSO GROWS
nādad: To wander, flee, or move to and fro.
נָדַד
The verb gives the restless movement in the verse the shape of ongoing wandering.
nedudim: Wanderings, restless motions, tossings.
נְדֻדִים
This plural form presents the night’s unrest as repeated movement, not one brief disturbance.
THE PATTERN
Anguish can keep the night in motion even when the body is laid down.
My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.THE THREAD
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.Job’s “full” and Psalm 17:15’s “satisfied” share the Hebrew root שׂבע (savaʿ), meaning to be full or sated. The shared root places a night filled with restless motion beside a waking filled with satisfaction: two radically different kinds of fullness.
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