לְקֹ֨ול תִּתֹּ֜ו הֲמֹ֥ון מַ֨יִם֙ בַּשָּׁמַ֔יִם וַיַּעֲלֶ֥ה נְשִׂאִ֖ים מִקְצֵ֣ה אֶרֶץ בְּרָקִ֤ים לַמָּטָר֙ עָשָׂ֔ה וַיֹּ֥וצֵא ר֖וּחַ מֵאֹצְרֹתָֽיו׃
(Jeremiah 10:13)
At the sound of His giving, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and He causes vapors to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
Information Structure and Pragmatics
The verse from Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) employs a layered clause structure where focus and topic interlock to form a cohesive cosmological statement. The topical domain is clearly divine activity, with יְהוָה as the implicit agent throughout the verse, while the focus is distributed across the successive acts of creation and control over meteorological phenomena.
The initial prepositional phrase לְקֹול תִּתֹּו (“at the sound of His giving”) functions as a marked fronted adverbial that establishes the temporal and causal frame for the entire sentence. This fronting creates markedness — a deliberate foregrounding — that draws attention to divine causation rather than the natural effect itself.
Pragmatically, this structure elevates YHWH’s initiative as the verse’s rheme: it is the voice of divine command that releases the following chain of meteorological actions. The clause progression thus aligns with a theocentric discourse pattern where divine control is both the thematic and pragmatic pivot. (See §7 on Word Order.)
Clause Typology and Cohesion
The verse comprises a sequence of paratactic verbal clauses joined by the waw-consecutive (וַ), producing rhythmic cohesion. There is no subordination; each clause carries the same syntactic weight, creating cumulative emphasis.
Each finite verb (וַיַּעֲלֶה, עָשָׂה, וַיֹּוצֵא) introduces a new meteorological action, yet all remain dependent semantically on the initial phrase לְקֹול תִּתֹּו. Thus, cohesion is not grammatical but thematic, woven through the repetition of divine agency.
The lack of hypotaxis reinforces immediacy, mirroring the rapid succession of divine acts within nature.
Verbal Aspect and the Waw System
The verse’s narrative backbone is the use of waw-consecutive imperfects — וַיַּעֲלֶה, וַיֹּוצֵא — which belong to the wayyiqtol (and he caused / and he brought forth) form. These forms mark perfective sequential actions in the narrative domain.
In contrast, עָשָׂה stands as a simple perfect (qatal), functioning as a gnomic assertion — a timeless truth rather than a temporal event.
This alternation between perfective sequence and timeless assertion generates aspectual depth: the wayyiqtol forms narrate observable effects, while the qatal encodes divine constancy. The author’s aspectual layering underscores theological permanence through grammatical texture. (See §6 on Predication.)
Nominal Phrase Internal Structure
The noun phrase הֲמֹון מַיִם בַּשָּׁמַיִם (“a multitude of waters in the heavens”) forms a construct chain where הֲמֹון governs מַיִם, establishing a genitive relation (“multitude of waters”). The addition of the locative בַּשָּׁמַיִם provides a spatial anchoring to the celestial domain.
Definiteness is propagated through the chain by the definite preposition בַּ–, rendering the phrase definite as a whole.
The clause’s imagery intensifies via nominal accumulation — נְשִׂאִים (“vapors” or “mists”) and בְּרָקִים (“lightnings”) — forming a lexical parallelism that reinforces the semantic coherence between water and fire, rain and lightning.
Argument Structure and Valency
The verbs in this verse are largely transitive or causative, each assigning YHWH as the subject and natural phenomena as direct objects:
- וַיַּעֲלֶה – “He causes to ascend” → Object: נְשִׂאִים.
- עָשָׂה – “He makes” → Object: בְּרָקִים לַמָּטָר.
- וַיֹּוצֵא – “He brings forth” → Object: רוּחַ.
This consistent transitivity serves as a grammatical mirror of divine causality: YHWH’s agency is total and unbroken.
Argument omission (the absence of the subject pronoun) is deliberate — the divine agent remains implicit yet omnipresent, encoded by verb morphology alone. (Cross-reference §1 and §7.)
Predication and Sentence Type
The verse functions as a multi-predicate verbal sequence, each clause expressing divine action through finite verbs. There is no nominal predication here; predication remains kinetic, expressing processes rather than states.
However, the embedded infinitive תִּתֹּו (“His giving”) operates as an abstract predicate of cause — not as an event, but as the generative force preceding motion. This use of the infinitive absolute (in function) adds theological abstraction to syntactic concreteness: the sound of divine command becomes the syntactic prelude to natural motion.
Word Order and Constituent Movement
Canonical Biblical Hebrew narrative order (VSO) is inverted in the opening phrase: לְקֹול תִּתֹּו is fronted before the verb chain begins. This topical fronting creates thematic primacy — the auditory manifestation of divine will precedes all visual manifestations of power.
Each subsequent clause returns to unmarked VSO order, restoring rhythm after the initial marked frame.
Thus, constituent movement performs pragmatic function: the fronted adverbial marks divine initiation, while canonical order resumes to signal narrative regularity. (See §1 on Information Structure.)
Lexical–Syntactic Ambiguity
Ambiguity arises with נְשִׂאִים, which can mean either “vapors” or “cloud-masses.” Contextually, both fit meteorological imagery, but syntactically, the participial nuance (“that which is lifted”) aligns better with the causative verb וַיַּעֲלֶה.
This morphological affinity resolves ambiguity pragmatically: divine agency is not random but grammatically coherent, with lexical form supporting semantic precision.
Masoretic Accentuation and Prosodic Syntax
The accent pattern divides the verse into four cola, each terminated by a major disjunctive (sof pasuq, zakef, atnah). This visual rhythm mirrors the syntactic parataxis.
The pause after בַּשָּׁמַיִם creates a prosodic boundary that separates the divine cause (“in the heavens”) from its earthly effect (“from the ends of the earth”).
Prosodic syntax thus confirms the hierarchical layering: sound (divine) → heavens → earth → wind.
Markedness, Economy, and Optimality
Every syntactic choice in this verse adheres to the principle of economy: maximum theological meaning in minimal linguistic form.
The repeated wayyiqtol sequence avoids unnecessary subordination, yielding compact parallelism.
Marked fronting, aspectual alternation, and construct chaining converge to express omnipotent order — an optimal mapping between divine will and grammatical efficiency.
Cohesion–Coherence Interface
Cohesion arises from verbal repetition and waw-sequencing; coherence stems from thematic unity.
Each clause coheres semantically with the next through a chain of natural elements — water, clouds, lightning, wind — forming a cognitive progression from upper to lower realms.
This syntactic gradient mirrors cosmological descent, a coherence strategy that aligns form with cosmology.
Interlink Map
| Dimension | Key Function | Cross-Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Information Structure | Focus on divine causation | §7 Word Order |
| Verbal Aspect | Alternation between wayyiqtol and qatal | §6 Predication |
| Nominal Structure | Construct chains as cohesion devices | §2 Clause Typology |
| Argument Structure | Implicit divine subject | §1 Pragmatics |
| Word Order | Fronting for emphasis | §1, §3 |
| Ambiguity | Lexical precision resolved by syntax | §5 Valency |
| Prosody | Accentual hierarchy marks flow | §2 Cohesion |
The Syntax of Reverberation: When Grammar Imitates Thunder
This verse’s syntax is not ornamental — it is mimetic. The sequential waw-forms echo thunder’s rolling rhythm; the fronted adverbial imitates the suddenness of divine sound; and the alternation of verbal aspects embodies the simultaneity of divine speech and natural response.
Biblical Hebrew here achieves theological precision through grammatical music: the heavens obey because syntax itself submits to divine order.
