What Does Joshua 10:14 Mean?
And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD heard and responded to the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel.
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
And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.THE KEY
The verse names the LORD’s hearkening to a human voice as the day’s deepest wonder.
THE MEANING
A human voice stands inside the field of divine action: the LORD hears, and the LORD fights. The wonder named here is not only an extraordinary day, but that a person’s voice is heard within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a human voice is too small to matter beside God’s action: the verse makes the LORD’s hearkening to a man’s voice its defining marvel.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁמַע
wayyishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed
“heard and responded to” in this verse is wayyishmaʿ. The verb comes from שמע (shamaʿ, hear or listen), the same root behind שְׁמַע (shemaʿ, hear and respond). Here, hearing is joined to action: the LORD hearkens to the man’s voice, and the next clause says the LORD fights for Israel.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; attend and respond.
שְׁמַע
It shows the responsive force that can live inside hearing, illuminating the verse’s link between the man’s voice and the LORD’s action.
shemuʿah: A report or tidings; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps the root’s sense of hearing visible, while Joshua’s verb gives that hearing a listener who responds.
THE PATTERN
A human cry or prayer is received within divine action.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.And said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your acts of compassion have been remembered before the eyes of God.THE THREAD
The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.Psalm 34:17 uses שמע (shamaʿ, hear or listen), the same root as Joshua’s “hearkened.” Joshua gives that hearing an immediate shape in the next clause: the LORD fights for Israel, so the voice is not merely heard but answered.
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