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} on the third day, when it was morning, there was thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain and a very loud ram's horn sound, and all the people who [were] in the camp trembled.
"About this also my heart trembles, and it leaps from its place. Listen carefully to his voice's thunder and [the] rumbling [that] goes out from his mouth. read more. He lets it loose under all the heavens, and his lightning to the earth's corners. After it, his voice roars; it thunders {with his majestic voice}, and he does not restrain it when his voice is heard. "God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways; he does great things, and we cannot comprehend.
Or do you have an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?
And Yahweh thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice [with] hail and coals of fire.
The voice of Yahweh causes deer to give birth and strips [the] forests bare. And at his temple all in it say, "Glory!"
May Yahweh give strength to his people. May Yahweh bless his people with peace.
He also handed their cattle over to the hail and their livestock to the lightning bolts.
{When he utters his voice} [there is] a noise of water in the heavens, and he causes [the] mist to rise from [the] ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he causes [the] wind to go out from his storehouses.
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} on the third day, when it was morning, there was thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain and a very loud ram's horn sound, and all the people who [were] in the camp trembled.
[Is] the wheat harvest not today? I will call out to Yahweh so that he still sends thunder and rain, so that you will know and will see that your wickedness [is] great that you have done in the eyes of Yahweh by asking for a king for yourselves." So Samuel called out to Yahweh, and Yahweh brought thunder and rain that [same] day, so all the people feared Yahweh and Samuel greatly.
Listen carefully to his voice's thunder and [the] rumbling [that] goes out from his mouth.
"Do you give power to the horse? Do you clothe its neck [with] a mane?
Or do you have an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?
And Yahweh thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice [with] hail and coals of fire.
The sound of your thunder [was] in the whirlwind; lightnings lit [the] world; the earth shook and quaked.
In this trouble you called, and I rescued you. Within [the] secret place of thunder I answered you; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they ran off.
and James the [son] of Zebedee and John the brother of James (and he gave to them the name Boanerges, that is, "Sons of Thunder"),
Now the crowd that stood [there] and heard [it] said {it had thundered}. Others were saying, "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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Pray to Yahweh. The thunder of God and hail {are enough}, and I will release you, and {you will no longer have to stay}."
{And} on the third day, when it was morning, there was thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain and a very loud ram's horn sound, and all the people who [were] in the camp trembled.
[Is] the wheat harvest not today? I will call out to Yahweh so that he still sends thunder and rain, so that you will know and will see that your wickedness [is] great that you have done in the eyes of Yahweh by asking for a king for yourselves." So Samuel called out to Yahweh, and Yahweh brought thunder and rain that [same] day, so all the people feared Yahweh and Samuel greatly.
Look, these [are] the outer fringes of his ways, and {how faint is the word} [that] we hear of him! But who can understand the thunder of his power?"
"Do you give power to the horse? Do you clothe its neck [with] a mane?
The voice of Yahweh [is] over the waters; the God of glory thunders. Yahweh [is] over many waters. The voice of Yahweh [is] powerful. The voice of Yahweh [is] majestic. read more. The voice of Yahweh breaks [the] cedars. Yahweh shatters even the cedars of Lebanon. And he makes them skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of Yahweh flashes flames of fire. The voice of Yahweh shakes [the] wilderness. Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of Yahweh causes deer to give birth and strips [the] forests bare. And at his temple all in it say, "Glory!"
Like snow in the summer and like rain at the harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.
Now the crowd that stood [there] and heard [it] said {it had thundered}. Others were saying, "An angel has spoken to him!" Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not happened for my sake, but [for] your sake.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but whenever the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. read more. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside the things of a child. For now we see through a mirror {indirectly}, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know completely, just as I have also been completely 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 to the heavens, and Yahweh gave thunder and hail, and fire went [to the] earth, and Yahweh caused hail to rain on the land of Egypt.
{And} on the third day, when it was morning, there was thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain and a very loud ram's horn sound, and all the people who [were] in the camp trembled.
And all the people [were] seeing the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the ram's horn and the mountain smoking, and the people saw, and they trembled, and they stood at a distance.
Yahweh will shatter his adversaries; he will thunder against them in the heavens. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and will exalt the might of his anointed one.
{While} Samuel [was] sacrificing the burnt offering, [the] Philistines drew near for the battle against Israel. But Yahweh thundered against [the] Philistines with a great noise on that day and threw them into confusion so that they were defeated before Israel.
[Is] the wheat harvest not today? I will call out to Yahweh so that he still sends thunder and rain, so that you will know and will see that your wickedness [is] great that you have done in the eyes of Yahweh by asking for a king for yourselves."
{when he made} a rule for the rain and a way for [the] thunder's lightning bolt,
After it, his voice roars; it thunders {with his majestic voice}, and he does not restrain it when his voice is heard.
"Who has cut open a channel for the torrents and a way for [the] {thunder bolts},
And Yahweh thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice [with] hail and coals of fire.
At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they ran off.
And Yahweh will cause the majesty of his voice to be heard, and he will cause the descent of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, [with] a cloudburst and a rainstorm and stones of hail.
And behold, [there was] a voice from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from heaven, "I have both glorified [it], and I 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 this one was still speaking, {another} came and said, "The fire of God fell from the heavens, and it blazed up against the sheep and goats and against the servants, and it consumed them. But I escaped, [even] I alone, to tell you."
The sound of your thunder [was] in the whirlwind; lightnings lit [the] world; the earth shook and quaked.
He also handed their cattle over to the hail and their livestock to the lightning bolts.
At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they ran off.
Now the crowd that stood [there] and heard [it] said {it had thundered}. Others were saying, "An angel has spoken to him!"
And from the throne came out lightnings and sounds and thunders, and seven torches of fire [were] burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.
And I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying like the sound of thunder, "Come!"
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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Yahweh will shatter his adversaries; he will thunder against them in the heavens. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and will exalt the might of his anointed one.
[Is] the wheat harvest not today? I will call out to Yahweh so that he still sends thunder and rain, so that you will know and will see that your wickedness [is] great that you have done in the eyes of Yahweh by asking for a king for yourselves."
Listen carefully to his voice's thunder and [the] rumbling [that] goes out from his mouth.
After it, his voice roars; it thunders {with his majestic voice}, and he does not restrain it when his voice is heard. "God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways; he does great things, and we cannot comprehend.
Or do you have an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?
And Yahweh thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice [with] hail and coals of fire.
The voice of Yahweh [is] over the waters; the God of glory thunders. Yahweh [is] over many waters. The voice of Yahweh [is] powerful. The voice of Yahweh [is] majestic. read more. The voice of Yahweh breaks [the] cedars. Yahweh shatters even the cedars of Lebanon. And he makes them skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of Yahweh flashes flames of fire. The voice of Yahweh shakes [the] wilderness. Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of Yahweh causes deer to give birth and strips [the] forests bare. And at his temple all in it say, "Glory!"
In this trouble you called, and I rescued you. Within [the] secret place of thunder I answered you; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
Like snow in the summer and like rain at the harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.
And Yahweh will cause the majesty of his voice to be heard, and he will cause the descent of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, [with] a cloudburst and a rainstorm and stones of hail. Indeed, Assyria will be shattered by the voice of Yahweh; he strikes with the rod.