What Does Exodus 16:7 Mean?
And in the morning, then you shall see the weight of the LORD, for he has heard your murmurings against the LORD. And what are we, that you murmur against us?
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
And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?THE KEY
The complaint that lodges through the night does not hide the LORD’s weight; morning makes it visible.
THE MEANING
The complaint you speak reaches the LORD; it is heard even when it comes out as murmuring. The question “what are we?” puts the people before you back in proportion: they are not the whole story. Morning makes the LORD’s weight visible as a presence that answers need.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a complaint disqualifies you from being heard dissolves here: the LORD hears the murmurings, and his weight is seen in the morning.
THE ROOT
כְּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
To be heavy or weighty; to give weight.
The Hebrew כָּבוֹד (kavod) is the LORD’s weight: not only a bright display, but a presence with substance that can be seen. The promise that you will see it in the morning makes divine presence perceptible within the scene of need.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
The same root describes actual heaviness, so “glory” carries the sense of heft and presence.
kibbed: Honored; treated as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
To honor is to give due weight, showing why kavod names the LORD’s consequential presence.
תְּלֻנֹּתֵיכֶם
telunoteikhem
GROWS FROM
לון
To lodge or remain overnight; also used for grumbling or complaint.
The Hebrew word for these murmurings shares its root with lodging or spending the night. Set beside “in the morning,” the wording lets you hear a complaint that lodges, yet does not prevent the morning’s disclosure.
ALSO GROWS
lin: To lodge or remain overnight.
לִין
This is the root’s lodging sense, which echoes the verse’s movement from complaint to morning.
malon: A lodging place.
מָלוֹן
This noun from the same root makes the sense of something staying overnight concrete.
בְּשָׁמְעוֹ
be-shom’o
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear or listen; in context, to heed and respond.
“heareth” in this verse is be-shom’o. The verse presents the LORD’s hearing as more than sound reaching an ear: the complaint is received, and the morning brings a visible response. The same root can carry the sense of hearing and responding.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This form shows how hearing can include an answer, matching the verse’s movement from complaint to visible disclosure.
shomea: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The same root names a listener, underscoring that the complaint is received.
THE PATTERN
A need voiced before the LORD is heard, and the LORD’s weight becomes visible in a concrete response.
And it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, that they turned their faces toward the wilderness, and look, the weight of the LORD was seen in the cloud.The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you, that if you would trust, you would perceive the weight of God?THE THREAD
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.“Glory” in both verses is the Hebrew word kavod, from כבד, meaning weight. Exodus makes that weight visible in the morning; the psalm lets the God of glory thunder over the waters, showing divine presence as something perceptible and powerful.
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