What Does Psalm 29:3 Mean?
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.
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
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.THE KEY
The thunder is the voice of divine weight moving over the waters.
THE MEANING
The verse places the LORD’s voice over the waters and makes that presence audible as thunder. The God of weight is present above the many waters, and the sound carries across the scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the overwhelming force around you is the highest power in the scene.
THE ROOT
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty.
The word translated “glory” grows from the root for weight. The verse gives that weight an audible force: the God of weight thunders over the waters.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
This branch makes the physical sense of kavod visible: glory carries weight.
kavod: Weight, honor, glory.
כָּבוֹד
These meanings stay together in the verse: divine glory is a presence with weight.
הִרְעִים
hir'im
GROWS FROM
רעם
r-'-m
To thunder or roar.
“thunders” in this verse is hir'im. This root makes the sound a thunderous action, not merely a display in the sky. Set beside “voice,” it lets the thunder be heard as the force of the LORD’s sound.
ALSO GROWS
ra'am: Thunder.
רַעַם
The noun names the sound that the verb in this verse makes.
ra'am: To thunder or roar.
רָעַם
This verbal branch shows thunder as an active sound moving through the scene.
קוֹל
qol
GROWS FROM
קול
q-w-l
Voice or sound.
Qol can mean a voice, a sound, or a noise; English “voice” narrows what the Hebrew lets you hear. Here that sound stands beside thunder and over many waters.
ALSO GROWS
qol: Voice.
קוֹל
This is the word in the verse, presenting the LORD’s sound as a voice.
qolot: Voices or sounds.
קוֹלוֹת
The plural form keeps the broader range of sound in view, beyond spoken words alone.
THE PATTERN
The divine voice carries the force of thunder and the breadth of many waters.
The voice of your thunder is in the wheel; the lightnings light the world; the earth quakes and shakes.And behold, the weight of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the voice of many waters, and the earth was lit from his weight.And his feet are like burnished bronze, as though they have been fired in a furnace, and his voice is like the sound of many waters.THE THREAD
The LORD thunders in the heavens, and the Most High gives his voice; hailstones and coals of fire.Psalm 18 uses the same רעם (ra’am) root for “thundered,” then says the Highest gives his voice. That pairing lets Psalm 29’s thunder be heard as the force of the voice over the waters.
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