a forceful rebuke: a sharp, powerful word of displeasure, whether God's world-shaking blast or a person's stern reproof
Across the Hebrew Bible this word names a sharp, forceful rebuke, and it lives in two very different worlds. In the wisdom books it is the plain reproof one person gives another, the correcting word a wise son takes to heart and a scoffer refuses to hear. In the poetry of the Psalms and the Prophets it becomes something far larger: the rebuke of God himself, less a spoken sentence than a thunderous blast of his anger.
When God is the one who rebukes, the word carries physical force. His rebuke:
- lays bare the channels of the sea and the foundations of the world
- dries up the sea and turns rivers into desert
- makes the pillars of heaven tremble
- casts chariot and horse into a dead sleep
A third, quieter use is the rebuke that simply frightens: the threat or menace that sends people running, so that a thousand flee at the rebuke of one.
The same root gives Hebrew the verb גער, "to rebuke," and the noun stands close to תוכחה, a reasoned reproof or argument. What sets this word apart is its edge and its volume: it is the rebuke that is felt, whether as a father's stern word or as the roar that stills the sea.