1 Kings 19, 12

[Jemoh66]

Since Simon and Garfunkel weren't around back then, I don't think sound of silence quite does. It seems obvious to me the he heard a "voice" and that it was a whisper of a voice at that. The context is that God has come to speak with his man. So I don't see in this instance that it's a "sound" and certainly not the absurdity of a sound that makes no sound.

[Jason Hare]

Since Simon and Garfunkel weren't around back then, I don't think sound of silence quite does. It seems obvious to me the he heard a "voice" and that it was a whisper of a voice at that. The context is that God has come to speak with his man. So I don't see in this instance that it's a "sound" and certainly not the absurdity of a sound that makes no sound.

Yeah, I'm glad that you said it. I don't think that a silent sound makes sense in the context. It's clearly supposed to mean a quiet voice, perhaps a voice that could be easily missed if one isn't paying attention.

[Isaac Fried]

Today I encountered Obadiah 1:16
‎וְשָׁתוּ וְלָעוּ וְהָיוּ כְּלוֹא הָיוּ
NIV: "they will drink and drink and be as if they had never been."
KJV: "yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been."

So, will they be something (some-thing), or actually nothing (no-thing)? Is Obadiah telling us that there is an intermediate stage between "to be" and "not to be", namely "to be a nothing"?

Isaac Fried, Boston University