For I am full of words; The spirit within me compels me.
Parallel translations
- WEB For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me.
- KJV For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me.
- BSB For I am full of words, and my spirit within me compels me.
- NASB “For I am full of words; The spirit within me compels me.
- NLT For I am full of pent-up words, and the spirit within me urges me on.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses corrects Joshua: the sound is not war but singing. He discerns the noise of idolatrous revelry.
Overview
Moses recognizes that the clamor is the sound of festive celebration, not victory or defeat in battle. His discernment reflects his knowledge, from God, of what is really happening. The contrast prepares the reader for the shock Moses experiences upon actually seeing the calf.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 39:3My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue:
- Acts 4:20for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.”
- Jer 20:9If I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I can’t.
- Ezek 3:14–27So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and Yahweh’s hand was strong on me.
- 2 Cor 5:13–14For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Or if we are of sober mind, it is for you.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 32:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.