What Does Job 7:9 Mean in the King James?

As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

Job 7:9 · KJV

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 cloud does not merely disappear here: it goes on, while the human descends to Sheol with no upward return.

THE MEANING

The verse speaks to your present life through a stark image: a cloud passes away, and a person’s descent to Sheol has no return. It leaves death’s finality unsoftened.

THE ROOT

וַיֵּלֵךְ

vayelekh

GROWS FROM

הלך

to go, walk, or move along

The Hebrew verb behind “vanisheth away” is ⁨וַיֵּלֵךְ⁩ (vayelekh, and it goes), from ⁨הָלַךְ⁩ (halakh, go or walk). English describes disappearance; Hebrew also gives the cloud a motion, echoing the human’s descent in the next clause.

ALSO GROWS

halikhah: going, walking

הֲלִיכָה

This noun preserves the root’s sense of movement, bringing out the motion beneath the cloud’s passing.

holekh: one who goes or walks

הוֹלֵךְ

This form describes a person in motion; in the verse, the human’s movement has a direction the cloud’s does not: downward.

יֹרֵד

yored

GROWS FROM

ירד

to descend, go down

“goeth down” in this verse is yored. The verb yored makes the movement a descent; its destination is ⁨שְׁאוֹל⁩ (Sheol, the realm of the dead). The next clause denies the opposite movement, so the line’s force lies in a direction that does not reverse.

ALSO GROWS

yeridah: descent

יְרִידָה

This noun keeps the downward direction visible in the verse’s image of death.

horid: to bring or take down

הוֹרִיד

The causative form shows the same root carrying something downward, extending the force of the descent image.

יַעֲלֶה

ya'aleh

GROWS FROM

עלה

to rise, go up, ascend

“come up” in this verse is ya'aleh. The final clause uses the root for upward movement and says it does not happen. The paired roots ⁨ירד⁩ (yarad, descend) and ⁨עלה⁩ (ʿalah, rise) make the verse’s finality a closed path, not only an abstract ending.

ALSO GROWS

ʿaliyah: ascent, going up

עֲלִיָּה

This noun names the upward movement that Job’s sentence denies.

he'elah: to bring or raise up

הֶעֱלָה

This causative form shares the root used in Psalm 30:3, where someone is brought up from Sheol.

THE PATTERN

Human life passes out of view, and within mortal experience death is spoken of as a limit that does not simply reverse.

So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

Job 14:12 · KJVLike Job 7:9, this verse describes death as a descent without return to ordinary life.

For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

Psalm 103:16 · KJVThe passing wind echoes the cloud’s disappearance and the loss of its former place.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

James 4:14 · KJVLife appears briefly and then vanishes, repeating the verse’s image of what passes beyond sight.

THE THREAD

O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Psalm 30:3 · KJV

Psalm 30:3 uses ⁨הֶעֱלִיתָ⁩ (he’elita, you brought up), from ⁨עלה⁩ (ʿalah, rise or go up), the same root Job uses for “come up.” The shared verb makes the contrast visible: Job’s sentence denies ascent from Sheol, while the psalm speaks of being brought up from it.

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