What Does Job 37:5 Mean?
God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things, which we cannot perceive.
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
God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.THE KEY
God’s thunderous voice names wonder precisely where human knowing reaches its edge.
THE MEANING
God’s voice meets you with works whose wonder exceeds what you can know. The verse holds God’s great work and your limited understanding in the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the assumption that what you cannot comprehend is absent or unreal.
THE ROOT
נִפְלָאוֹת
nifla’ot
GROWS FROM
פלא
To be wonderful or extraordinary, beyond ordinary capacity.
“wondrously” in this verse is nifla’ot. The Hebrew form נִפְלָאוֹת (nifla’ot, wondrous things) carries marvel as a quality of the works themselves. Beside “we cannot know,” it makes wonder and the edge of knowing part of one statement.
ALSO GROWS
pele: Wonder; an extraordinary thing.
פֶּלֶא
The same root names the wonder itself, not only the manner in which something happens.
hifli: He acted wondrously; he did something extraordinary.
הִפְלִיא
This form shows the root describing wonder as an act, as it does in the works named here.
נֵדָע
neda’
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know or perceive.
“perceive” in this verse is neda’. The Hebrew verb נֵדָע (neda’, we know) places the boundary in human knowing itself. Its word family also includes דַּעַת (da’at, knowledge), joining the act of knowing with knowledge as a state.
ALSO GROWS
yodea: One who knows; knowing.
יוֹדֵעַ
The same root describes the knower, bringing the human limit in this verse into focus.
da’at: Knowledge; knowing.
דַּעַת
The verse’s limit concerns knowing itself, the field named by this related form.
יַרְעֵם
yar’em
GROWS FROM
רעם
To thunder or roar.
“thundereth” in this verse is yar’em. The same root names thunder as an action and as a sound, holding the event and its audible force together. Here God’s voice sounds as thunder while the works remain beyond human knowing.
ALSO GROWS
hir’im: He thundered.
הִרְעִים
Psalm 29:3 uses this verbal form for the LORD’s thunder, joining the same root to the divine voice.
ra’am: Thunder; a thunderous sound.
רַעַם
Psalm 77:18 uses this noun for the sound of God’s thunder, making the voice’s force audible.
THE PATTERN
God’s works and ways can be present and real while remaining beyond the reach of human knowing.
Such perceiving is too wonderful for me; it is high, and I cannot reach it.For my plans are not your plans, nor are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.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
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.Psalm 29:3 uses הִרְעִים (hir’im, thundered), from רעם (ra’am, thunder or roar), the same root carried by Job’s “thundereth.” It joins that root directly to the LORD’s voice over the waters, so Job’s thunder is the voice’s force made audible.
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