What Does Job 26:14 Mean?
Look, these are the edges of his ways. How faint a whisper of a word is heard of him! And the thunder of his might, who can discern?
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
Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?THE KEY
God’s power is truly heard in the thunder, yet what reaches you is only a fragment of his ways.
THE MEANING
You encounter real traces of God, but each trace is only a small portion of the whole. His power reaches you as thunder, heard, yet not fully understood. The verse holds knowing and mystery together: what you perceive is real, and more remains beyond your grasp.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that unless you can fully comprehend God, you have not truly encountered him.
THE ROOT
יִתְבּוֹנָן
yitbonan
GROWS FROM
בין
bin
Discern, distinguish, understand.
The word asks who can discern the thunder of God’s power. The root also appears in בֵּין (bein), meaning “between”: understanding carries the sense of perceiving distinctions and relations, even when the whole remains beyond reach.
ALSO GROWS
hevin: understood, discerned
הֵבִין
This verbal form shares the root and makes clear that the question is about the limits of human discernment.
binah: understanding, discernment
בִּינָה
This noun from the same root names the capacity the verse finds unable to contain the full measure of God’s power.
bein: between, among
בֵּין
It shares the root’s consonants and gives discernment a relational image: seeing what lies between things, while recognizing that some of God’s ways remain beyond what can be grasped.
רַעַם
ra'am
GROWS FROM
רעם
ra'am
Thunder, roar.
The same root names thunder and the act of thundering. God’s power arrives in the verse as sound that can be heard, while its full force still exceeds understanding.
ALSO GROWS
ra'am: to thunder, roar
רָעַם
The verb makes the thunder active: the power is heard as a force that resounds.
re'amim: thunders
רְעָמִים
The plural keeps the same root and echoes the verse’s picture of power made audible.
דְּרָכָיו
derakhav
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
Tread, step; a way or path.
The word for God’s ways grows from the root for treading. A way is a course marked by steps, and Job calls what can be seen only a portion of that vast course.
ALSO GROWS
derekh: way, road, path
דֶּרֶךְ
This noun shares the root and names the path whose full extent is only partly perceived.
darak: to tread, step
דָּרַךְ
The verb reveals the motion within a way: a path is what is walked step by step.
midrakh: footstep, place to tread
מִדְרָךְ
This word from the same consonantal family makes the path tangible as a place marked by steps.
THE PATTERN
What God reveals is real and can be perceived, while the fullness of his ways exceeds human understanding.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens recount the weight of God; and the expanse sets forth the work of his hands.Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness cannot be searched out.O the depth of the riches of both wisdom and knowledge of God! How beyond searching out are his judgments, and how beyond tracking are his ways!THE THREAD
Have you not perceived? Have you not heard and responded? The God of the ages, the LORD, who created the edges of the earth, does not faint, nor tire; there is no searching of his discernment.Isaiah’s “understanding” belongs to the same Hebrew word family as Job’s “understand.” Together, the verses show that God can be heard and known while the depth of his understanding remains beyond searching.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us