What Does Job 40:9 Mean?
Do you have an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like his?
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
Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?THE KEY
The verse pairs arm and voice to ask whether human power can make itself sound like God’s.
THE MEANING
Your strength and voice are measured against God’s, and the verse asks whether they can carry the same force. Its challenge reaches beyond volume: the sound attributed to God bears a power no human arm or voice can claim as its own.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that human strength or volume can equal God’s authority.
THE ROOT
תַּרְעֵם
tarʿēm
GROWS FROM
רעם
r-ʿ-m
To thunder, crash, or roar.
The verb asks whether your voice can thunder with the force attributed to God. The Hebrew makes the comparison more vivid than mere loudness: it asks whether a human voice can carry thunder.
ALSO GROWS
raʿam: To thunder.
רָעַם
This verbal form makes the verse’s challenge about thunder explicit.
hirʿim: He made thunder; he thundered.
הִרְעִים
This form shows the root describing thunder as an act, not just a sound.
קוֹל
qol
GROWS FROM
קול
q-w-l
Voice, sound, or noise.
The same Hebrew word can mean a voice or a sound. Beside the verb “thunder,” it lets the verse hold speech and thunder together: the question is whether your voice can carry that kind of force.
ALSO GROWS
qol: Voice, as in speech.
קוֹל
This is the sense rendered “voice” in the verse.
qol: Sound or noise.
קוֹל
This broader sense lets the phrase evoke the audible force of thunder, not speech alone.
THE PATTERN
Divine authority is expressed through a voice that carries power beyond human command.
The voice of the LORD is in power; the voice of the LORD is in splendor.And when he had said these things, he cried out with a great voice, Lazarus, come out!THE THREAD
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.The Hebrew word translated “thundereth” comes from the same root, רעם (raʿam), as “thunder” in Job’s question. Here the psalm places the LORD’s voice and thunder together, making the sound-power connection plain.
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