What Does Job 37:14 Mean?
Tilt your ear to this, Job; stand and discern the wonders of God.
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
Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.THE KEY
The verse does not ask you to make a wonder happen; it asks you to notice what is already beyond your power to master.
THE MEANING
You are addressed now: listen, hold your place, and attend to the works of God. Your attention does not create them; it makes room to perceive what remains wondrous rather than fully mastered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This loosens the belief that what you cannot explain must be absent or meaningless. The verse makes room for perception without claiming mastery.
THE ROOT
הִתְבּוֹנֵן
hitbonen
GROWS FROM
בין
b-y-n
To discern, distinguish, or understand.
“discern” in this verse is hitbonen. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of attending reflectively, and its root also gives words for understanding and discernment. The verse joins consideration with learning to perceive: attention can disclose what a passing glance misses.
ALSO GROWS
bin: understand; discern
בִּין
This root-family link shows that considering the wonders is a form of perception that can become understanding.
tevunah: understanding; discernment
תְּבוּנָה
This branch carries the same seed into the capacity to make sense of what is perceived.
navon: discerning; perceptive
נָבוֹן
This branch describes the person whose attention has become discernment.
נִפְלְאוֹת
nifla'ot
GROWS FROM
פלא
p-l-ʾ
To be extraordinary or marvelous, beyond the ordinary measure.
“wonders” in this verse is nifla'ot. The word holds onto the wonder in these works: they exceed ordinary measure and are not exhausted by explanation. Beside “consider,” it suggests perception that can recognize what is there without pretending to master it.
ALSO GROWS
pele: wonder; marvel
פֶּלֶא
This branch names the quality of what exceeds the ordinary and echoes the verse’s invitation to attend.
nifla: wondrous; extraordinary
נִפְלָא
This branch describes something marvelous, preserving the sense that God’s works surpass easy explanation.
THE PATTERN
Attentive perception lets the created world disclose the works of God.
Great are the works of the LORD, sought out by all who delight in them.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.Look closely at the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you, Solomon in all his weight was not clothed like one of these.THE THREAD
Make me discern the way of your appointments, and I murmur over your wonders.The same roots meet again: בין (bin, discern or understand) and פלא (pala, be wondrous) connect understanding with God’s wonders. Job’s call to consider is not mere staring; it opens into perception that can become understanding and speech.
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