What Does Exodus 20:18 Mean?
And all the people perceived the voices, and the flames, and the sound of the ram's horn, and the mountain smoking. And when the people perceived it, they shook and stood far off.
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 all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the thunder “voices,” so sound and trumpet-noise belong to one field of force in this encounter.
THE MEANING
You meet the overwhelming as sound made visible: thunderings, lightning, trumpet, smoke. Your senses do not stay neatly separate from the encounter; you recoil, then hold yourself at a distance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that an encounter with God must feel soothing or draw you close; here the people recoil and keep their distance.
THE ROOT
הַקֹּלֹת
haqqolot
GROWS FROM
ק־ו־ל
Voice, sound, call; the audible force named as thunder here.
הַקֹּלֹת (haqqolot, “the voices/sounds”) is the plural of קוֹל (qol, “voice/sound”). The verse uses that same word in קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר (qol ha-shofar, “the sound of the trumpet”), joining the thunderings and trumpet-noise in one field of voiced force.
ALSO GROWS
qol: Voice; sound.
קוֹל
The singular form appears again for the trumpet’s “noise,” connecting its sound to the thunderings.
qol ha-shofar: The voice or sound of the shofar (trumpet).
קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר
This phrase uses the same word as “thunderings,” letting thunder and trumpet sound share the same Hebrew language of voice.
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets divine voice cross the boundary between speech and natural force.
And on the third day, in the morning, there were thunders and flashes, and a heavy cloud upon the mount, and the sound of the ram's horn was very strong, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.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 places the LORD’s voice alongside thunder, echoing the Hebrew root ק־ו־ל (q-w-l, “voice/sound”) behind “thunderings” and “trumpet noise” here. Voice arrives as force in the created world, not only as speech.
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