The Meaning of Job 33:18 Explained

Job 33:18

KJV: He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.

YLT: He keepeth back his soul from corruption, And his life from passing away by a dart.

Darby: He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from passing away by the sword.

ASV: He keepeth back his soul from the pit, And his life from perishing by the sword.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

He keepeth back  his soul  from the pit,  and his life  from perishing  by the sword. 

What does Job 33:18 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 33:1-33 - The Interpreter
It is not wonderful that Elihu has been mistaken for the Mediator Himself, so helpfully does he interpose between Job and his Maker. He dwells especially on his own likeness to Job in his manhood, and quotes this as the reason why he could specially help him: I also am formed out of the clay. So also our High Priest is man. Elihu takes up Job's words protesting his innocence, and he insists that Job was not right in those protestations, or in the conclusions that he drew from them.
Then follows one of the grandest passages in the book. Elihu tells how God speaks in nature and through conscience, and is often disregarded; and how then he speaks by revelation, opening the ears of men to withdraw them from their purpose. He shows that God often lays a man upon a bed of pain, that He may speak to his heart. Happy is the afflicted if an interpreter stands beside him to point the path to repentance. Finally, broken and penitent, he turns back to God, and sees His face with joy, and sings before men the story of his restoration. Thus Elihu argues that affliction is often sent as discipline to read to man God's deepest truth. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 33

1  Elihu offers himself instead of God to reason with Job
8  He excuses God from giving man an account of his ways, by his greatness
14  God calls man to repentance by visions, by afflictions, and by his ministry
31  He incites Job to attention

What do the individual words in Job 33:18 mean?

He keeps back his soul from the Pit and his life from perishing by the sword
יַחְשֹׂ֣ךְ נַ֭פְשׁוֹ מִנִּי־ שָׁ֑חַת וְ֝חַיָּת֗וֹ מֵעֲבֹ֥ר בַּשָּֽׁלַח

יַחְשֹׂ֣ךְ  He  keeps  back 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: חָשַׂךְ  
Sense: to withhold, restrain, hold back, keep in check, refrain.
נַ֭פְשׁוֹ  his  soul 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular construct, third person masculine singular
Root: נֶפֶשׁ  
Sense: soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion.
שָׁ֑חַת  the  Pit 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular
Root: שַׁחַת  
Sense: pit, destruction, grave.
וְ֝חַיָּת֗וֹ  and  his  life 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, feminine singular construct, third person masculine singular
Root: חַי 
Sense: living, alive.
מֵעֲבֹ֥ר  from  perishing 
Parse: Preposition-m, Verb, Qal, Infinitive construct
Root: עָבַר 
Sense: to pass over or by or through, alienate, bring, carry, do away, take, take away, transgress.
בַּשָּֽׁלַח  by  the  sword 
Parse: Preposition-b, Article, Noun, masculine singular
Root: שֶׁלַח 
Sense: weapon, missile, sprout.