What Does 2 Samuel 22:14 Mean?
The LORD thunders from the heavens, and the Most High gives his voice.
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
The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice.THE KEY
The verse names thunder as the Most High’s own voice, so heaven’s sound is speech.
THE MEANING
The sound that reaches you as thunder is presented as a voice from above: the LORD thunders, and the Most High gives his voice. The verse holds the roar and the utterance together as one expression of the Most High.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that thunder is only an impersonal sound: here, thunder is identified as the LORD giving his voice.
THE ROOT
וַיַּרְעֵם
wayyar'em
GROWS FROM
רעם
Roar; thunder.
“thundered” in this verse is wayyar'em. The same three consonants name both thunder and the act of thundering, making the sound the LORD’s own action. The verse’s second line calls that same sound the Most High’s voice.
ALSO GROWS
ra'am: Thunder.
רַעַם
The noun and verb share the root, joining the thunder itself to the act of thundering.
hir'im: He thundered; he made a thunderous sound.
הִרְעִים
This verbal form makes the storm’s sound an action attributed to the LORD.
יִתֵּן
yitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
The Hebrew says the Most High gives his voice. A word translated “uttered” therefore carries the sense of giving, and the parallel presents that giving as thunder.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
It is the root verb behind the verse’s “gives his voice.”
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
This related word shows the root’s connection to what is given.
עֶלְיוֹן
ʿelyon
GROWS FROM
עלה
Go up; ascend.
The title comes from the language of ascent: the Most High is the one above. Beside “from heaven,” it makes elevation both the source of the sound and part of the speaker’s name.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up or ascend.
עָלָה
This verb supplies the root sense carried in the title “Most High.”
ʿaliyah: Ascent; going up.
עֲלִיָּה
This related noun makes the title’s language of height visible as movement upward.
THE PATTERN
Thunder in scripture can be heard as the voice of God, making the storm a sound that carries divine speech.
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things, which we cannot perceive.The crowd standing by, hearing it, said it had thundered, and others said, A messenger spoke to him.THE THREAD
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.Psalm 29:3 repeats the root רעם (ra’am, thunder) beside קול (qol, voice), making explicit the pairing in 2 Samuel. It extends that sound over the waters, so the thunder is heard across the whole scene.
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