The Meaning of Job 4:4 Explained

Job 4:4

KJV: Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.

YLT: The stumbling one do thy words raise up, And bowing knees thou dost strengthen.

Darby: Thy words have upholden him that was stumbling, and thou hast braced up the bending knees:

ASV: Thy words have upholden him that was falling, And thou hast made firm the feeble knees.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Thy words  have upholden  him that was falling,  and thou hast strengthened  the feeble  knees. 

What does Job 4:4 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 4:1-21 - "shall Mortal Man Be More Just Than God?"
The first cycle of speeches is opened by Eliphaz. It must be remembered that he and the two others believed that special suffering resulted from and was the sign of special sin. Job's calamities, in the light of that thought, seemed to prove that he who had been considered a paragon of perfection was not what they had supposed. According to their philosophy, if only he would confess his sin, all would be well and the sun would shine again upon his path.
Eliphaz recounts a visitation, in a night vision, from the unseen world, which is described with marvelous power. Emphasis is laid on the infinite distance between God and man, and on the impossibility of a mortal being accounted just in the presence of divine purity. Of course the suggestion is that Job was suffering the penalty of sin which, though it had eluded human eyes, was naked and open before God. An angel seems dark against God's pure light, and if an angel is deficient, how much more man! [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 4

1  Eliphaz reproves Job that the innocent do not suffer
7  He teaches God's judgments to be not for the righteous, but for the wicked
12  His fearful vision to humble the excellency of creatures before God

What do the individual words in Job 4:4 mean?

Him who was stumbling have upheld Your words and the knees feeble you have strengthened
כּ֭וֹשֵׁל יְקִימ֣וּן מִלֶּ֑יךָ וּבִרְכַּ֖יִם כֹּרְע֣וֹת תְּאַמֵּֽץ

כּ֭וֹשֵׁל  Him  who  was  stumbling 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Participle, masculine singular
Root: כָּשַׁל  
Sense: to stumble, stagger, totter.
יְקִימ֣וּן  have  upheld 
Parse: Verb, Hifil, Imperfect, third person masculine plural, Paragogic nun
Root: קוּם 
Sense: to rise, arise, stand, rise up, stand up.
מִלֶּ֑יךָ  Your  words 
Parse: Noun, feminine plural construct, second person masculine singular
Root: מִלָּה  
Sense: word, speech, utterance.
וּבִרְכַּ֖יִם  and  the  knees 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, fd
Root: בֶּרֶךְ  
Sense: knee.
כֹּרְע֣וֹת  feeble 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Participle, feminine plural
Root: כָּרַע  
Sense: to bend, kneel, bow, bow down, sink down to one’s knees, kneel down to rest (of animals), kneel in reverence.
תְּאַמֵּֽץ  you  have  strengthened 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Imperfect, second person masculine singular
Root: אָמֵץ  
Sense: to be strong, alert, courageous, brave, stout, bold, solid, hard.