What Does Revelation 10:3 Mean?
And he cried out with a loud voice, as a lion roars, and when he had cried out, the seven thunders spoke with their own voices.
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 cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.THE KEY
The lionlike cry is followed by thunder that is not mere noise but seven voices.
THE MEANING
A cry with the force of a lion gives way to seven thunders, each described as having a voice of its own. Revelation arrives here as utterance carried through sound, even when it does not arrive as ordinary speech.
THE ROOT
ἐλάλησαν
elalēsan
GROWS FROM
λαλέω (laleō), stem λαλε-
To speak or utter.
“spoke with their own voices” in this verse is elalēsan. The verb is λαλέω, “to speak,” the same verb used when some hear a messenger who “spake” in John 12:29. The thunders’ voices are presented as utterance, not merely as an echo of the cry.
ALSO GROWS
laliá: Speech or manner of speaking.
λαλιά
This branch names speech as something heard, illuminating how the thunders’ sound is given voice.
laleō: To speak or say.
λαλέω
The verb’s basic sense makes the thunders speakers in the verse, rather than just a sound following the cry.
φωνάς
phōnas
GROWS FROM
φων-
phōn-
Voice or sound.
The Greek word φωνή appears for the loud voice and again for the thunders’ own voices. The same word holds together a cry and the sound of thunder, letting the scene move from one voice-like sound to seven.
ALSO GROWS
phōneō: To call out or sound.
φωνέω
This verbal branch connects voice with the act of sounding, as the cry gives way to the thunders’ utterance.
aphōnos: Voiceless or mute.
ἄφωνος
Its contrast sharpens the image: the thunders are not left voiceless but are described as having voices of their own.
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets thunder and voice name the same overwhelming sound, so force can also be heard as utterance.
The crowd standing by, hearing it, said it had thundered, and others said, A messenger spoke to him.The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things, which we cannot perceive.THE THREAD
The crowd standing by, hearing it, said it had thundered, and others said, A messenger spoke to him.The Greek verb translated “spake” shares the root λαλέω with “uttered” here. John places that speaking beside thunder, opening Revelation’s scene as thunder that speaks.
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