What Does Job 37:2 Mean in the King James?
Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word translated “sound” shares its root with “meditate”: what comes out of the mouth and what is murmured within belong to one movement.
THE MEANING
You meet the voice in its force: the sound stirs, and an utterance goes out from the mouth. The verse holds the felt vibration and the spoken word together before the message is reduced to something you can paraphrase.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a sound not yet understood is empty noise: its trembling is already part of the utterance reaching you.
THE ROOT
הֶגֶה
hegeh
GROWS FROM
הגה
hagah
To murmur, utter, or muse.
The root can describe both an utterance and meditation, the low murmur of words turned over within. The sound going out from the mouth therefore carries a connection to what is quietly spoken or considered within.
ALSO GROWS
meditate: Murmur, muse, or meditate.
הָגָה
Psalm 1:2 uses this root for meditation, linking Job’s outward sound with words murmured inwardly.
speak: Speak or utter.
הָגָה
In Psalm 35:28, the tongue speaks with this root, showing that the same word family moves between inward murmur and voiced speech.
רֹגֶז
rogez
GROWS FROM
רגז
ragaz
To shake, tremble, or become agitated.
The word carries the sense of agitation or trembling within what is heard. The voice’s noise is thus more than volume: it is sound with the force to stir.
ALSO GROWS
quake: Tremble or quake, as the earth does in 1 Samuel 14:15.
רָגַז
The same root used for the earth’s trembling gives the voice’s noise a sense of force that can be felt.
rogez: Agitation or wrath, as in Habakkuk 3:2.
רֹגֶז
This branch shows how the word can name a stirred state, giving “noise” a shade of disturbance as well as sound.
THE PATTERN
A voice reaches you as audible force before its meaning is fully resolved.
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:THE THREAD
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.The word translated “sound” in Job shares its root with the word translated “meditate” here. The root joins what goes out from the mouth with what is murmured inwardly.
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