What Does Exodus 9:29 Mean?
And Moses said to him, As I go out of the city, I will spread out my palms to the LORD. The thunder shall stop, and there shall be no more hail, so that you may perceive that the earth is the LORD's.
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 Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’s.THE KEY
Hebrew calls the thunder “voices,” so when Moses spreads his hands toward the LORD and the roar ceases, the storm itself becomes evidence that the earth belongs to its true owner.
THE MEANING
The thunder that fills the moment does not own the earth it shakes. As hands spread toward the LORD and the storm ceases, the event makes visible that the earth belongs to the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that the loudest force in the moment has final authority over the world.
THE ROOT
אֶפְרֹשׂ
ephros
GROWS FROM
פרשׂ
To spread out or extend.
“spread out my palms” in this verse is ephros. The Hebrew verb here is also used for hands reaching toward God in prayer and distress. The gesture is open-handed appeal; the storm’s power is not Moses’ to command, and its cessation points to the LORD’s ownership.
ALSO GROWS
parasti: I spread out; in Psalm 143:6, “I stretch forth my hands.”
פֵּרַשְׂתִּי
The same root gives the open-handed posture a language of reaching toward God.
parsah: She spread out; in Lamentations 1:17, Zion spreads forth her hands.
פָּרְשָׂה
The image also carries distress and appeal, showing that spread hands can expose need rather than exert control.
הַקֹּלוֹת
ha-qolot
GROWS FROM
קול
Voice or sound.
The Hebrew word translated “thunder” is literally “voices.” English makes the storm sound like impersonal weather; the Hebrew keeps its roar in the same sound-world as a voice that can be heard and then cease.
ALSO GROWS
qol: Voice or sound.
קֹול
The same word can name a human voice or a sound, so the storm’s “voices” are not linguistically separate from speech.
qolot: Voices; used here for the thunder.
קֹלוֹת
The plural makes the storm’s roar sound like many voices that fall silent.
qol YHWH: The voice of the LORD.
קוֹל יְהוָה
Psalm 29:3 places the LORD’s voice over the waters and parallels it with thunder, joining storm and voice in a picture of authority.
תֵּדַע
teda
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
“perceive” in this verse is teda. The knowing here is recognition opened through an event, not merely receiving a fact. The storm’s cessation becomes the encounter through which the LORD’s ownership is made known.
ALSO GROWS
da’at: Knowledge.
דַּעַת
This noun grows from the same root and names what becomes clear through recognition.
hodi’a: To make known or declare.
הוֹדִיעַ
This causative form connects knowing with disclosure: the event makes the earth’s owner known.
THE PATTERN
The forces that dominate a moment remain within the LORD’s authority, and their restraint discloses who owns the world.
A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and what fills it; the inhabited world, and those who settle in it.The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.And waking, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be silent. Be muzzled. And the wind wore itself out, and a great calm came.THE THREAD
I spread my hands to you; my living soul thirsts for you as a parched land. Selah.The verb translated “stretch forth” shares the root פרשׂ (paras), “to spread out or extend,” with Moses’ “spread abroad.” The psalm pairs that open-handed reach with thirsty land, bringing appeal and the earth’s dependence into one image.
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