Reference: Thunder
American
And lightning are significant manifestations of the power of God, and emblems of his presence, Ex 19:16; 1Sa 2:10; 12:17; Ps 18:13. Thunder is poetically called "the voice of the Lord" in the sublime description of a thunder-storm in Ps 29:11;
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;
The God of glory thundereth;
The Lord is upon many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars;
Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon," etc.
See also Job 37:1-5; 40:9; Jer 10:13. In illustration of Ps 29:9, Moffat, while describing the thunder-storms of South Africa, say that the antelopes flee in consternation; and that he has observed the Bechuanas starting off early on the morning following such a storm in quest of young antelopes prematurely born. In Ps 78:48, "hot thunderbolts" means lightning.
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And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet exceeding loud; and the whole people that was in the camp trembled.
Aye, my heart trembleth at this also, and leapeth up out of its place: Hear attentively the roar of his voice, and the murmur going forth from his mouth. read more. He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth. After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency, and holdeth not back the flashes when his voice is heard. God thundereth marvellously with his voice, doing great things which we do not comprehend.
Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
And Jehovah thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice: hail and coals of fire.
The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to calve, and layeth bare the forests; and in his temple doth every one say, Glory!
Jehovah will give strength unto his people; Jehovah will bless his people with peace.
And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the end of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries.
Easton
often referred to in Scripture (Job 40:9; Ps 77:18; 104:7). James and John were called by our Lord "sons of thunder" (Mr 3:17). In Job 39:19, instead of "thunder," as in the Authorized Version, the Revised Version translates (ra'amah) by "quivering main" (marg., "shaking"). Thunder accompanied the giving of the law at Sinai (Ex 19:16). It was regarded as the voice of God (Job 37:2; Ps 18:13; 81:7; comp. Joh 12:29). In answer to Samuel's prayer (1Sa 12:17-18), God sent thunder, and "all the people greatly feared," for at such a season (the wheat-harvest) thunder and rain were almost unknown in Palestine.
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And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet exceeding loud; and the whole people that was in the camp trembled.
Is it not wheat-harvest to-day? I will call unto Jehovah, and he will send thunder and rain; and ye shall perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of Jehovah in asking for yourselves a king. And Samuel called to Jehovah; and Jehovah sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people greatly feared Jehovah and Samuel.
Hear attentively the roar of his voice, and the murmur going forth from his mouth.
Hast thou given strength to the horse? hast thou clothed his neck with the quivering mane?
Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
And Jehovah thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice: hail and coals of fire.
The voice of thy thunder was in the whirlwind, lightnings lit up the world; the earth was troubled and it quaked.
Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
At thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away; --
and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, and he gave them the surname of Boanerges, that is, Sons of thunder;
The crowd therefore, which stood there and heard it, said that it had thundered. Others said, An angel has spoken to him.
Fausets
Rare in the clear air of Palestine in harvest time or summer, which shows how its coming at Samuel's call unto Jehovah was by divine agency (1Sa 12:17-18). God so blessed the Holy Land that the ingathering of fruits and the threshing in the open air were unimpeded by rain. Its coming then would be as unseasonable and calamitous as "honour" conferred on a "fool" (Pr 26:1). Symbolizing divine wrath and judgment (Ex 19:16; Ps 29:3-9; 1Sa 2:10). Thunderings are figuratively spoken of as "voices of God" (Ex 9:28 margin, compare Joh 12:29-30). Job 26:14, translated "and how faint is the word whisper that we hear of Him! but the thunder (i.e. the majestic fullness) of His power (in antithesis to 'the whisper') who can understand?" (1Co 13:9-12.) Job 39:19, "hast thou clothed his (the horse's) neck with thunder?" i.e. majesty (Umbreit): or his arched neck inspiring fear as the thunder does; but Maurer, "with his trembling, quivering mane."
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Intreat Jehovah that it may be enough, that there be no more thunder of God and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer!
And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet exceeding loud; and the whole people that was in the camp trembled.
Is it not wheat-harvest to-day? I will call unto Jehovah, and he will send thunder and rain; and ye shall perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of Jehovah in asking for yourselves a king. And Samuel called to Jehovah; and Jehovah sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people greatly feared Jehovah and Samuel.
Lo, these are the borders of his ways; but what a whisper of a word do we hear of him! And the thunder of his power, who can understand?
Hast thou given strength to the horse? hast thou clothed his neck with the quivering mane?
The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth, Jehovah upon great waters. The voice of Jehovah is powerful; the voice of Jehovah is full of majesty. read more. The voice of Jehovah breaketh cedars; yea, Jehovah breaketh the cedars of Lebanon: And he maketh them to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young buffalo. The voice of Jehovah cleaveth out flames of fire. The voice of Jehovah shaketh the wilderness; Jehovah shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to calve, and layeth bare the forests; and in his temple doth every one say, Glory!
As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour beseemeth not a fool.
The crowd therefore, which stood there and heard it, said that it had thundered. Others said, An angel has spoken to him. Jesus answered and said, Not on my account has this voice come, but on yours.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part: but when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away. read more. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a child; when I became a man, I had done with what belonged to the child. For we see now through a dim window obscurely, but then face to face; now I know partially, but then I shall know according as I also have been known.
Hastings
There is no finer description of a thunderstorm than that of Ps 29. In a land of high mountains and deep gorges, split throughout its length by the great cleft of the Jordan, the effect of thunder is peculiarly terrible. In Palestine it is confined almost entirely to winter (1Sa 12:17 f.), but the writer once witnessed a terrific storm late in April, among the Gilead uplands. It is invariably accompanied by rain. According to poetic and popular Ideas, thunder was the voice of God (Ps 104:7; Job 37:4 etc.), which a soul gifted with insight might understand and interpret (Joh 12:28 f.; cf. Mr 1:11; Mt 3:17 etc.). It is the expression of His resistless power (1Sa 2:10; Ps 18:13 etc.), and of His inexorable vengeance (Isa 30:30 etc.). Thunder plays a part in afflicting the Egyptians (Ex 9:23 ff.), at the delivery of the Law (Ex 19:16; 20:18), and in discomfiting the Philistines (1Sa 7:10). It is not guided by caprice, but by the will of God (Job 28:26; 38:25). It appears largely in the more terrible imagery of the Apocalypse. For 'Sons of Thunder,' see Boanerges.
W. Ewing.
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And Moses stretched out his staff toward the heavens, and Jehovah gave thunder and hail; and the fire ran along the ground; and Jehovah rained hail on the land of Egypt.
And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet exceeding loud; and the whole people that was in the camp trembled.
And all the people saw the thunderings, and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off,
They that strive with Jehovah shall be broken to pieces; in the heavens will he thunder upon them. Jehovah will judge the ends of the earth; and he will give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.
And as Samuel was offering up the burnt-offering, the Philistines advanced to battle against Israel. And Jehovah thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were routed before Israel.
Is it not wheat-harvest to-day? I will call unto Jehovah, and he will send thunder and rain; and ye shall perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of Jehovah in asking for yourselves a king.
In appointing a statute for the rain, and a way for the thunder's flash:
After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency, and holdeth not back the flashes when his voice is heard.
Who hath divided a channel for the rain-flood, and a way for the thunder's flash;
And Jehovah thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice: hail and coals of fire.
At thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away; --
And Jehovah will cause the majesty of his voice to be heard, and will shew the lighting down of his arm with indignation of anger, and a flame of consuming fire, with waterflood and storm and hailstones.
and behold, a voice out of the heavens saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight.
And there came a voice out of the heavens: Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight.
Father, glorify thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, I both have glorified and will glorify it again.
Morish
This is of rare occurrence in Palestine, and is regarded in scripture as being the voice of God in power, both in the O.T. of the past and in the Revelation of the future. Ps. 29; Ps 77:18; 104:7; Re 4:5; 6:1; etc.: compare also Joh 12:29. In Ps 78:48, in recounting the plagues of Egypt, the flocks are represented as being consumed by HOT THUNDERBOLTS. The word is resheph, and is also translated 'coals,' 'burning coals,' 'burning heat.' Doubtless lightning is referred to, as when the 'fire of God' fell from heaven and burnt up Job's sheep. Job 1:16.
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While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped, alone, to tell thee.
The voice of thy thunder was in the whirlwind, lightnings lit up the world; the earth was troubled and it quaked.
And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
At thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away; --
The crowd therefore, which stood there and heard it, said that it had thundered. Others said, An angel has spoken to him.
And out of the throne go forth lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and seven lamps of fire, burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God;
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as a voice of thunder, Come and see.
Smith
is hardly ever heard in Palestine form the middle of April to the middle of September; hence it was selected by Samuel as a striking expression of the divine displeasure toward the Israelites.
Rain in harvest was deemed as extraordinary as snow in summer,
and Jerome states that he had never witnessed it in the latter part of June or in July. Comm. on
In the imaginative philosophy of the Hebrews, thunder was regarded as the voice of Jehovah,
Job 37:2,4-5; 40:9; Ps 18:13; 29:3-9; Isa 30:30-31
who dwelt behind the thunder-cloud.
Thunder was, to the mind of the Jew, the symbol of divine power
etc., and vengeance.
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They that strive with Jehovah shall be broken to pieces; in the heavens will he thunder upon them. Jehovah will judge the ends of the earth; and he will give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.
Is it not wheat-harvest to-day? I will call unto Jehovah, and he will send thunder and rain; and ye shall perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of Jehovah in asking for yourselves a king.
Hear attentively the roar of his voice, and the murmur going forth from his mouth.
After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency, and holdeth not back the flashes when his voice is heard. God thundereth marvellously with his voice, doing great things which we do not comprehend.
Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
And Jehovah thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice: hail and coals of fire.
The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth, Jehovah upon great waters. The voice of Jehovah is powerful; the voice of Jehovah is full of majesty. read more. The voice of Jehovah breaketh cedars; yea, Jehovah breaketh the cedars of Lebanon: And he maketh them to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young buffalo. The voice of Jehovah cleaveth out flames of fire. The voice of Jehovah shaketh the wilderness; Jehovah shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to calve, and layeth bare the forests; and in his temple doth every one say, Glory!
Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour beseemeth not a fool.
And Jehovah will cause the majesty of his voice to be heard, and will shew the lighting down of his arm with indignation of anger, and a flame of consuming fire, with waterflood and storm and hailstones. For through the voice of Jehovah shall the Assyrian be broken down: he will smite him with the rod.