What Does 1 Samuel 12:18 Mean?
So Samuel called to the LORD, and the LORD gave thunder and rain that day, and all the people stood greatly in awe of the LORD and in fear of Samuel.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
So Samuel called unto the LORD; and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the thunder “voices,” so the LORD’s answer arrives not only as weather but as something the whole people can hear.
THE MEANING
A call to the LORD becomes audible and bodily in thunder and rain, reaching everyone at once. Fear gathers around both the LORD and Samuel: awe before the divine, fear before the human authority standing within the same moment.
THE ROOT
קֹלוֹת
qolot
GROWS FROM
קול
qol
Voice, sound
“thunder” in this verse is qolot. The word is plural: voices, which in a storm means thunderings. The storm’s sound carries the sense of many voices, so what reaches the people is both weather and an audible answer.
ALSO GROWS
qol: Voice, sound
קוֹל
This singular form shows that the thunder’s word belongs to the language of voice and sound.
qolot: Voices; thunderings
קֹלוֹת
This is the plural form used for the thunder that the people hear.
וַיִּתֵּן
wayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
Give, set, place
“sent” in this verse is wayyitten. This root carries the sense of giving or placing. The same seed appears in words for a gift and for something given or placed, so the thunder and rain arrive as an event given into this very day.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift, present
מַתָּנָה
This branch shows the root’s sense of something given.
nathun: Given, placed
נָתוּן
This branch carries the root’s sense of something set into place.
וַיִּירָא
wayyira
GROWS FROM
ירא
yare
Fear, dread, awe
“greatly in awe of the LORD and in fear of Samuel” in this verse is wayyira. One verb governs the people’s response to both the LORD and Samuel, but its shade follows the object: awe toward the LORD and fear toward a human authority. The Hebrew holds both responses in one event without erasing the difference.
ALSO GROWS
yirah: Fear, awe
יִרְאָה
This noun names the response that rises before the LORD in the verse.
mora: Dread, awe
מוֹרָא
This branch carries the root’s weight of fear before a person or power.
THE PATTERN
Divine presence becomes publicly perceptible through signs that enter the shared, physical world.
And Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven, and the LORD gave thunder and hail, and fire walked along the ground, and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.And when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from the heavens and devoured the rising offering and the sacrifices, and the weight of the LORD filled the house.And when they had prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Set-Apart Breath and spoke the word of God with boldness.THE THREAD
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.The word translated “thunder” here is קֹלוֹת (qolot), “voices”; Psalm 29:3 uses קוֹל (qol), “voice,” and says the LORD thunders over the waters. The shared root lets the storm’s sound read as voice within the verse’s own language.
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