What Does Job 37:4 Mean?
After it a voice roars. He thunders with the voice of his majesty, and he does not hold them back when his voice is heard.
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
After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard.THE KEY
The verse binds hearing to release: once this thunderous voice is heard, what it sets in motion is no longer held back.
THE MEANING
The voice meets you with force: it roars and thunders, and what it sets in motion is not held back when it is heard. Hearing marks the point where the voice’s force is received and movement follows.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that the divine voice can be heard while its force remains suspended or contained.
THE ROOT
יִשָּׁמַע
yishama
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or attend.
The שמע family holds together hearing and what is heard: a voice is received, and its sound can become a report. Here, “is heard” marks the hinge between the voice sounding and its force moving without restraint.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear! Listen!
שְׁמַע
This imperative uses the same שמע root; it shows hearing as an active encounter, though Job’s verb here describes a voice being heard.
shemu'ah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This noun comes from the same root and carries hearing into what is received and passed on.
יִשְׁאַג
yish'ag
GROWS FROM
שאג
To roar.
“roars” in this verse is yish'ag. The verse chooses the sound of a roar for the voice, giving it an audible force that cannot be mistaken for quiet or distant speech. The same root names both the roaring and the sound’s source.
ALSO GROWS
she'agah: A roar or roaring.
שְׁאָגָה
This noun shares the root’s consonants and makes the roar itself a thing heard.
sho'eg: Roaring; one who roars.
שׁוֹאֵג
This participle shares the root and describes the one producing the roar.
יַרְעֵם
yar'em
GROWS FROM
רעם
To thunder.
“thunders” in this verse is yar'em. The Hebrew verb for thunder is paired directly with קול, “voice,” so the sound of thunder and the voice are bound in the verse’s image. The voice is heard with the force of thunder, and what follows is not delayed.
ALSO GROWS
ra'am: Thunder.
רַעַם
This noun shares the רעם root and names the sound carried by the verb.
hir'im: He thundered; he made a thunderous sound.
הִרְעִים
This verb form shares the root and makes explicit the thunderous action expressed here.
THE PATTERN
When the divine voice is heard, its force moves outward and is not held in suspension.
The voice of the LORD is in power; the voice of the LORD is in splendor.So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Truly, truly, I say to you, The hour is coming, and now it is, when the dead will hear and respond to the voice of the Son of God, and those who respond will live.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.“Hear” is שְׁמַע (shema), from the same שמע root as “is heard” in Job 37:4. The shared root links the voice sounding with its reception: hearing is the point at which the voice reaches its listener.
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