Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Job 37:5 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 5. 5God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Job 37:5 closes the thought unit with the words “God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.” Elihu states “God thundereth marvellously with his voice” as one poetic claim in Elihu Trembles at the Thunderous Voice.
Read It With
- Job 37:1–37:5
Read Job 37:5 with 37:1–37:5. Read alone, “God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Elihu describes his heart moving, calls listeners to hear thunder, and portrays lightning and thunder as God's incomprehensible voice.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Elihu continues from Job 36:24–36:33: Elihu calls Job to magnify visible works and describes divine eternity, evaporation, clouds, thunder, light, sea, judgment, and provision. Job 37:1–37:5 now develops the next distinct movement: Elihu describes his heart moving, calls listeners to hear thunder, and portrays lightning and thunder as God's incomprehensible voice. Within that relationship, Job 37:5 closes the thought unit through “God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.”
Read Job 37:1–5 together
Why these verses belong together: Job 37:1–37:5 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained speech movement: “Elihu Trembles at the Thunderous Voice.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.
Verse 1. 1 At this also my heart trembleth, and is moved out of his place.
Verse 2. 2 Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth.
Verse 3. 3 He directeth it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth.
Verse 4. 4 After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard.
Verse 5. 5 God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.
What Remains True
Elihu describes his heart moving, calls listeners to hear thunder, and portrays lightning and thunder as God's incomprehensible voice. Creation exceeds human mastery and utility; humility receives its scale, freedom, beauty, danger, and limits without turning poetry into modern science or power into moral proof. Job 37:5 carries that bounded truth through “God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.”
How It Can Shape Life
- Teach Job 37:1–37:5 as ancient creation poetry and theology: attend to the particular image and its role, value human and nonhuman life, and refuse scientific overclaim or moralized disaster mapping. Preserve this unit-specific boundary in the action: Storm imagery evokes divine majesty but does not decode weather as a personal message or judgment. The verse-specific evidence to retain is “God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.”
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Job 37:1–37:5 — Elihu Trembles at the Thunderous VoiceSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 37:1–37:5, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 37:1–37:5
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 37:1–37:5.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 37:1–37:5
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗