Bible verses about silence

A still small voice, and the same question twice

Both of our translations say a still small voice in 1 Kings 19:12, so the toggle cannot show you that the Hebrew is stranger than that. It is qol demamah daqqah (interlinear): qol, a voice or a sound; daqqah, thin or fine; and between them demamah (1827), which Brown-Driver-Briggs glosses “(silence) whisper”. The Cambridge Bible gives the literal rendering from the margin of the Revised Version, “a sound of gentle stillness”, and adds that “there is nothing to indicate to us whether the sound was articulate or not” (commentaries on 1 Kings 19:12).

Demamah occurs three times in the Hebrew Bible, and each time it sits next to a sound. The second is in the list above: Psalm 107:29, where a storm is made a calm, which BDB renders “he settleth storm into whisper”. The third is a night vision in Job, the one the Cambridge Bible sets beside Elijah’s:

Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,Job 4:15-16 · World English Bible

Silence, then I heard a voice: the same two words, demamah and qol, that Elijah heard on the mountain.

What the still small voice says is the part that usually gets left off. It asks What are you doing here, Elijah? That is the question he had already been asked in the cave, before the wind:

He came to a cave there, and camped there; and behold, the LORD’s word came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”1 Kings 19:9-10 · World English Bible

His answer the second time, after the silence, is verse 14:

He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”1 Kings 19:14 · World English Bible

In the modern rendering that is verse 10 again, letter for letter. The King James changes one word, for to because, where the Hebrew does not change at all (interlinear). The Pulpit Commentary marks it “Verbatim as in ver. 10” and suggests the tone may have changed even though the words did not; the text does not say (commentaries on 1 Kings 19:14). The answer opens I have been very jealous, one Hebrew verb said twice, qanno qinneti, and it is the verb our page on jealousy is about.

What changes after the silence is not his answer but what he is given: work to do, Go, return on your way, in verse 15, and a correction of the one fact he had wrong.

Yet I reserved seven thousand in Israel, all the knees of which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.”1 Kings 19:18 · World English Bible

He had said I, even I only, am left, twice. The still small voice is often quoted as if it were a feeling of calm. In the chapter it is a question, then instructions, then the news that he was not the only one left.

Holding your tongue

Proverbs 17:28 has two verbs for it, charash (2790), to keep silent, and atam (331), to shut, as in shutting the lips (interlinear). It is also more careful than it is usually quoted as being. It does not say a fool who keeps quiet is wise. It says he is counted wise, and is thought to be discerning, and one verb serves both halves, chashav (2803), which Brown-Driver-Briggs glosses “think, account” (2803). The proverb promises a reputation, which is a more realistic thing to promise.

In Job 13:5 Job turns the same thought on his friends. The Hebrew says the verb twice, hacharesh tacharishun, an infinitive and then the finite verb, which is how Hebrew leans on a word: completely in the modern rendering and altogether in the King James are both translating the doubling (interlinear). Ellicott calls the line “singularly like the sentiment of Proverbs 17:28”, and Barnes, Poole and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown all point to the same proverb (commentaries on Job 13:5). The irony is that these friends had begun well. They sat on the ground with him for seven days without a word, and our page on friendship and the post on what to say to someone grieving both take up what went wrong when they started talking.

A silence that made it worse

Proverbs recommends silence. Psalm 39 tries it, and it goes badly. The writer resolves to keep his mouth with a bridle, holds his peace even from good, and reports the result: My sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burnt. Then he speaks. The noun in the middle of verse 2, dumiyah, is the word our page on rest finds under Psalm 62:1, where the King James turns it into waiting; here the King James has I was dumb with silence.

When he does speak, he speaks to God, and near the end the silence is turned round:

“Hear my prayer, LORD, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.Psalms 39:12 · World English Bible

The psalm opens with a man holding his peace and, one verse from the end, has him asking God not to hold his. In the King James both are peace, I held my peace in verse 2 and hold not thy peace in verse 12. In Hebrew they are two different verbs, chashah (2814) at the start and charash at the end (interlinear), and the second of them runs through the rest of this page.

Ecclesiastes 3:7, in the list, says there is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, and its verb for keeping silence is chashah, Psalm 39’s first word (interlinear). Psalm 39 is that sentence lived through in order. Our post on what to say to someone grieving reads the same order for anyone sitting with a friend: silence first, then speech.

One verb, said to people and asked of God

Seven of the twelve passages on this page use one Hebrew verb, charash (2790). In three of them people are told to be quiet: Exodus 14:14, Job 13:5 and Proverbs 17:28. In the other four the silence is God’s. Psalm 28:1 and Psalm 83:1 ask him not to keep it, in Isaiah 42:14 he says he has kept it a long time, and Zephaniah 3:17 is the one place it is love. Brown-Driver-Briggs divides the verb along that line: one form of it is used “almost always of men”, the other “always of God’s keeping silence when men pray”. The word for holding your tongue is the word for the silence of God that people complain about.

The English hides it. The King James says hold your peace, altogether hold your peace, holdeth his peace, be not silent, hold not thy peace, I have been still and rest. The modern rendering says be still, completely silent, keeps silent, be deaf, keep silent, been quiet and calm you. Neither translation uses one English word for all seven.

One of those renderings collides with two of our other pages. The modern text of Exodus 14:14 ends you shall be still, which makes three famous “be still”s on this site, from three different words: raphah, to slacken, on our Psalm 46:10 page; phimoo, to muzzle, in Mark 4:39 on our sleep page; and here charash. Commentators take Exodus 14:14 two ways. The Pulpit Commentary has “do nothing, remain at rest”; Keil and Delitzsch have “keep quiet, and not complain any more”, since the people had just been complaining (commentaries on Exodus 14:14).

Psalm 28:1 is where the toggle does show something. The modern rendering has don’t be deaf to me, lest, if you are silent to me, two different English words, and the King James has be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, the same word twice. The Hebrew has two verbs, charash and then chashah (interlinear), and BDB lists this verse under the second meaning of charash, “be deaf”. In this verb, not answering and not hearing are one word.

Psalm 83:1 has three words for silence in one line: domi (1824), which BDB glosses “cessation, pause, quiet, rest”, then charash, then shaqat (8252), “be quiet, undisturbed” (interlinear). The King James gives them three English phrases, Keep not thou silence, hold not thy peace and be not still. The modern rendering says keep silent twice for two different words, which makes this one of the places where the older translation is the more exact.

When God is silent

When these passages say God is silent, the complaint is usually that he has not acted. The Cambridge Bible, on I have been still in Isaiah 42:14, says “it is abstinence from action, not from speech, that is meant”, and BDB files three uses with God as subject under “permitting evil in silence”. One is that verse. Another is in Habakkuk, who opens his book asking how long (it is on our page about doubt) and then puts it like this:

You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,Habakkuk 1:13 · World English Bible

None of this is tidied away. Psalm 28, Psalm 83 and Habakkuk were kept as they were written, the way Psalm 13 was kept with its four how longs on our page about grief. We cannot tell you why a particular silence happens, and these passages do not try to.

Isaiah 42:14 is the strangest verse on this page, because the voice in it is God’s, and it uses the same two verbs as Psalm 28:1, chashah and charash: I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself (interlinear). The verb for restrained myself is ’apaq (662), and the Cambridge Bible points to two other uses of it, Genesis 43:31 and 45:1 (commentaries on Isaiah 42:14). Both are Joseph, in front of the brothers who sold him, trying not to cry:

Then Joseph couldn’t control himself before all those who stood before him, and he called out, “Cause everyone to go out from me!” No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard.Genesis 45:1-2 · World English Bible

He held it in until he couldn’t, and then He wept aloud. Isaiah’s verse has the same shape: a long silence, held back on purpose, and then I will cry out like a travailing woman.

The end of the verse is where our two translations part completely. The King James has I will destroy and devour at once; the modern rendering has I will both gasp and pant. One of the two verbs, nasham (5395), occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, so there is nothing to check it against. Strong’s gives it as “properly, to blow away, i.e. destroy”, which is the King James reading; Brown-Driver-Briggs gives “pant”, and sets it beside neshamah, breath (5395). Ellicott takes the breath: “Better, I pant and gasp. The verbs express strong emotion, the cries of the travailing woman rather than destructive acts.” The Cambridge Bible renders it the same way, and notes that the verb for cry out “does not recur in the O.T.” either. We print both and leave it there. The half of the verse that is not in doubt is the first: a silence that was long, and held on purpose.

Zephaniah 3:17 is the one place on this page where God’s silence is good news, and neither of our translations lets you see it. The King James has he will rest in his love, the modern rendering He will calm you in his love, and the Hebrew verb is charash again, yacharish (interlinear). The Pulpit Commentary reads “He will rest (Hebrew, be silent) in his love”, a love “which needs no outward demonstration”. The Cambridge Bible has “Or, he will be silent”, a love “so strong and deep as to hush motion or speech” (commentaries on Zephaniah 3:17). It sits between two loud clauses, He will rejoice over you with joy and He will rejoice over you with singing.

It is also a manuscript question, of the ancient-translation kind. The Greek Septuagint and the Syriac read the verb as he will renew, which in Hebrew differs from be silent by one letter, a d where the Hebrew text has an r; Brown-Driver-Briggs records the variant in its entry for charash. The Cambridge Bible says the Greek rendering “offers no acceptable alternative”, and the Pulpit Commentary that “there is no sufficient reason for making the change”. Both keep the Hebrew, and so do both of our translations, though neither of them says silent.

Make it your ambition to be quiet

The one New Testament passage in the list is the most practical. In 1 Thessalonians 4:11 the King James says study to be quiet, and study undersells the verb, philotimeomai (5389). Thayer’s lexicon gives it as “to be fond of honor” and, followed by another verb, “to be ambitious to” (5389). The modern rendering keeps the ambition: make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. Ellicott calls it an oxymoron, Vincent “the paradox, strive to be quiet”, and the Cambridge Bible “an example of St Paul’s characteristic irony” (commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 4:11).

The verb occurs three times in the New Testament, all in Paul, and the other two are his own largest ambitions:

yes, making it my aim to preach the Good News, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another’s foundation.Romans 15:20 · World English Bible

Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him.2 Corinthians 5:9 · World English Bible

Preaching where nobody had, and being well pleasing to God. The third thing he uses the word for is a quiet life. The modern rendering says aim, aim and ambition, close enough to see the join; the King James says strived, labour and study, and you would never know. The quiet is not silence of speech, either. Thayer glosses hesychazo in this verse as “to lead a quiet life, said of those who are not running hither and thither, but stay at home and mind their business” (2270), and the verse goes straight on to do your own business, and to work with your own hands.

What this page is not

• It is not the page for rest. Quietness as rest, Psalm 62:1 and Isaiah 30:15’s in quietness and in confidence, is on rest. Be still, and know that I am God has its own page, Psalm 46:10, and the weaned child of Psalm 131:2 is on contentment.
• It is not the page for doubt or loneliness. If God’s silence has turned into wondering whether anyone is there, doubt is closer. If the silence is that nobody calls, loneliness.
• It is not a diagnosis. Wanting quiet is ordinary. If you have stopped talking to people altogether and it has gone on for weeks, talk to a doctor: the US National Institute of Mental Health describes depression as different from ordinary low moods, with symptoms that “affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities” (NIMH on depression). If it has turned into not wanting to be here, call or text 988 in the US (988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), or your local emergency number anywhere else.