Bible Strands
Psalms 29:8
The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist declares Yahweh’s voice acting upon the desert, following a statement about striking flames and preceding a description of uprooted oaks and temple acclamation. The passage records a divine manifestation moving from fire to earth-shaking to a corporate cry of glory.
The words — יָחִ֣יל (ya.Chil) denotes a causative trembling or shaking, and מִדְבַּר (mid.Bar) refers to the wilderness or desert. The verb repeats to emphasize that Yahweh is the direct agent of the terrain’s destabilization.
The thread — This divine shaking motif runs through Job 9:6, where God moves the earth and its foundations tremble, and Psalms 18:7, where the earth quakes and mountain foundations shake. The geographic marker Kadesh appears in Numbers 13:26 as the return point for the spies at the Wilderness of Paran.
Why it lands — The text states that Yahweh’s voice physically agitates the wilderness and Kadesh, establishing that no remote or arid place lies outside His direct agency. The reader must acknowledge that divine presence operates with the same force upon geography as it does upon human foundations.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness; the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
Cross-references
- Numbers 13:26 and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
- Job 9:6 He shakes the earth from its place, so that its foundations tremble.
- Psalms 18:7 Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled; they were shaken because He burned with anger.
- Psalms 46:3 though their waters roar and foam and the mountains quake in the surge. Selah
- Isaiah 13:13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts on the day of His burning anger.
- Joel 3:16 The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.
- Haggai 2:6 For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
- Haggai 2:21 “Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I am about to shake the heavens and the earth:
- Hebrews 12:26 At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”