What Does Job 8:15 Mean in the King James?
He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.
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 hand gripping the house depends on the very support that cannot bear the weight.
THE MEANING
The image names what happens when your sense of shelter depends on something that cannot carry the weight placed on it. You may tighten your grip as it begins to fail, yet gripping cannot make it stand or rise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that clinging harder can turn an unstable support into a dependable one.
THE ROOT
יִשָּׁעֵן
yishsha'en
GROWS FROM
שׁען
sha'an
Lean on; rely on.
This verb can describe both putting physical weight on something and relying on it. Hebrew holds the bodily lean and inward trust together: the house receives the weight, then proves unable to carry it.
ALSO GROWS
mish'an: Support, stay
מִשְׁעָן
The branch names what carries the weight, keeping the act of leaning tied to its support.
mish'enet: Staff, support
מִשְׁעֶנֶת
A staff is something one physically leans on, preserving the bodily image within the same root.
יַחֲזִיק
yachaziq
GROWS FROM
חזק
chazaq
Be strong; strengthen or make firm.
“hold it fast” in this verse is yachaziq. The verb behind hold fast comes from the root for strength and strengthening. His grasp expresses strength, but applying force to a support does not make the support sound.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: Strong, mighty
חָזָק
This branch names the strength implied in the act of holding fast.
chizzeq: Strengthen, fortify
חִזֵּק
The strengthening branch sharpens the contrast: even an effort to make something firm cannot keep this house standing.
יָקוּם
yaqum
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
Rise, stand, be established.
The verb translated endure has the concrete sense of rising or standing. The final failure is not abstract: the house does not rise into lasting support.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise, stand
קוּם
This is the root’s plain bodily action, making the house’s failure concrete.
heqim: Raise, set up, establish
הֵקִים
This causative branch describes setting something upright, echoing the question of whether the house can remain established.
THE PATTERN
Reliance is only as sound as the strength of what receives its weight.
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.A Song of degrees. They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:THE THREAD
Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.Isaiah’s וְיִשָּׁעֵן (yishsha’en, “lean/rely”) comes from the same root, שׁען (sha’an, “lean/rely”), as Job’s “lean.” The shared word shifts the question from whether you lean on something to whether what you lean on can bear you.
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