What Does Job 8:4 Mean in the King James?
If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;
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 verb translated “cast them away” is shalach, the same word used for sending the oppressed into freedom.
THE MEANING
The sentence addresses “thy children” directly: their missing against God is followed by their being sent away for rebellion. It places blame and separation in a direct line, with no softening of the consequence it names.
THE ROOT
וַיְשַׁלְּחֵם
wayishallechem
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
š-l-ḥ
To send, send forth, release, or let go.
“cast them away” in this verse is wayishallechem. Shalach is not limited to rejection: it can name sending forth, letting go, or release. The verse carries another possibility inside its own verb, the same motion of sending can end exclusion or become deliverance, depending on where it leads.
ALSO GROWS
shallach: Send forth; let go.
שַׁלַּח
This is the verb in “Let my people go” (Exodus 8:1), where sending opens a way to freedom.
mishloaḥ manot: Sending portions to one another.
מִשְׁלֹחַ מָנוֹת
This branch uses the same root for extending provision, showing that sending can carry something toward another person.
חָטְאוּ
chata'u
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, go wrong, or incur guilt.
The English “sinned” sounds like a settled moral category, but ḥata begins with the image of missing or going wrong. Here the missing is directed “against him,” so the word remains relational as well as moral.
ALSO GROWS
chet: A missing; wrongdoing.
חֵטְא
This noun preserves the image of a miss inside the verse’s accusation.
chatta't: Missing; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
This related form connects the act of missing with a response directed toward it.
פִּשְׁעָם
pish'am
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-š-ʿ
To rebel or break away.
The Hebrew phrase is literally “by the hand of their rebellion,” giving the rebellion agency in the sending. “Transgression” here is sharper than another name for a miss: it is a breaking away.
ALSO GROWS
pesha: Rebellion; a breakaway.
פֶּשַׁע
This noun names the kind of wrongdoing the verse gives as the cause of separation.
posh'im: Rebels; those who break away.
פֹּשְׁעִים
This form describes people through the same root idea of rebellion.
THE PATTERN
A sending can cut someone off or open a way out; its destination gives the sending its force.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.THE THREAD
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?Job’s “cast them away” is שָׁלַח (shalach), the same root behind “let the oppressed go free.” The root holds sending away and sending into freedom together; here, its destination and the relationship between sender and sent determine its force.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us