Thunder

VIEW:19 DATA:01-04-2020
THUNDER.—There is no finer description of a thunderstorm than that of Psa_29:1-11. 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 (Psa_104:7, Job_37:4 etc.), which a soul gifted with insight might understand and interpret (Joh_12:28 f.; cf. Mar_1:11, Mat_3:17 etc.). It is the expression of His resistless power (1Sa_2:10, Psa_18:13 etc.), and of His inexorable vengeance (Isa_30:30 etc.). Thunder plays a part in afflicting the Egyptians (Exo_9:23 ff.), at the delivery of the Law (Exo_19:16; Exo_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; Job_38:25). It appears largely in the more terrible imagery of the Apocalypse. For ‘Sons of Thunder,’ see Boanerges.
W. Ewing.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


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" (Pro_26:1). Symbolizing divine wrath and judgment (Exo_19:16; Psa_29:3-9; 1Sa_2:10). Thunderings are figuratively spoken of as "voices of God" (Exo_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."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Thunder. Thunder is hardly ever heard in Palestine, from 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. 1Sa_12:17. Rain, in harvest, was deemed as extraordinary as snow in summer, Pro_26:1, and Jerome states that he had never witnessed it, in the latter part of June or in July. Amo_4:7.
In the imaginative philosophy of the Hebrews, thunder was regarded as the voice of Jehovah, Job_37:2; Job_37:4-5; Job_40:9; Psa_18:13; Psa_29:3-9; Isa_30:30-31, who dwelt behind the thunder-cloud. Psa_81:7. Thunder was, to the mind of the Jew, the symbol of divine power, Psa_29:3. etc., and vengeance. 1Sa_2:10; 2Sa_22:14.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


thun?dẽr (רעם, ra‛am (1Sa_2:10; Job_26:14; Job_39:19; Job_40:9; Psa_77:18; Psa_81:7; Psa_104:7; Isa_29:6), קול, ḳōl, ?a voice? (Exo_9:23; 1Sa_7:10; 1Sa_12:17; Job_28:26; Job_38:25)): Thunder is the noise resulting from the lightning discharge. It is very common in the winter storms of Syria and Palestine and occurs in the extra-season storms. Thunder accompanied the storm of hail in Egypt at the time of the plagues: ?The Lord sent thunder and hail? (Exo_9:23).
Lightning and thunder are indications of the power of Yahweh and His might. ?The thunder of his power who can understand?? (Job_26:14); ?The God of glory thundereth? (Psa_29:3). Yahweh also confused the Philistines with thunder (1Sa_7:10), and His foes were ?visited of Yahweh of hosts with thunder? (Isa_29:6). Thunder was regarded as the voice of Yahweh: ?God thundereth with the voice of his excellency? (Job_37:4), and God spoke to Jesus in the thunder (βροντή, brontḗ, Joh_12:29). See also LIGHTNING.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Job_26:14 (a) This was used to indicate that though our sense of hearing may realize that GOD is working, our minds are unable to understand the manner of it.

Job_39:19 (b) The type is used to illustrate man's helplessness, either to give strength to the horse, or power to the elements.

Psa_77:18 (a) In this wonderful way GOD is telling us of His mighty power which is beyond human control and human comprehension. (See also Psa_29:3; Psa_104:7).

Psa_81:7 (a) GOD dwells in the high and holy place, but He hears the faintest cry of His child wherever he may be.

Rev_14:2 (b) It is symbolical of the great and mysterious power of GOD in that no one can understand it, nor control it.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.



(prop. רִעִם, rdam, βροντή; occasionally [Exo_9:28-29; Exo_9:33-34; Exo_19:16; Exo_20:18; 1Sa_7:10; 1Sa_12:17-18; Job_28:26; Job_38:25] קוֹל, kôl, voice, as an elliptical expression for Jehovah's voice [Psa_29:3 sq., etc.]; so also in the plur. קוֹלַים, thunders, Exo_9:23, etc.; which is likewise elliptical for the full voices of God [exe 9:28];once [Job_39:19 (23)] erroneously in the A. V. for רִעֲמָה, raamâh, a shuddering, i.e. probably the mane of a horse as bristling and streaming in the wind). This sublimest of all the extraordinary phenomena of nature is poetically represented as the voice of God, which the waters obeyed at the Creation (Psa_104:7; comp. Gen_1:9). For other instances see Job_37:4-5; Job_40:9; Psa_18:13; and especially ch. 29 which contains a magnificent description of a thunder-storm. Agreeably to the popular speech of ancient nations, the poet ascribes the effects of lightning to the thunder, “The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars” (Psa_18:5; comp. 1Sa_2:19). In Jer_10:13 the production of rain by lightning is referred to: “When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, he maketh lightnings with (or for) rain.” SEE RAIN.
Thunder is also introduced into the poetical allusion to the passage of the Red Sea in Psalm 67:18. The plague of hail on the land of Egypt is very naturally represented as accompanied with “mighty thunderings,” which would be literally incidental to the immense agency of the electric fluid on that occasion (Exo_9:22-29; Exo_9:33-34). It accompanied the lightnings at the giving of the law (Exo_19:16; Exo_20:18). See also Psa_81:7, which probably refers to the same occasion, “I answered thee in the secret place of thunder,” literally, “in the covering of thunder,” בסתר רעם, i.e. the thunder-clouds. It was also one of the grandeurs attending the divine interposition described in 2Sa_22:14; comp. Psa_18:13. The enemies of Jehovah are threatened with destruction by thunder; perhaps, however, lightning is included in the mention of the more impressive phenomenon (1Sa_2:10). Such means are represented as used in the destruction of Sennacherib's army (Isa_29:5-7; comp. Isa_30:30-33). Bishop Lowth would understand the description as metaphorical, and intended, under a variety of expressive and sublime images, to illustrate the greatness, the suddenness, the horror of the event, rather than the manner by which it was effected (new transl., and notes ad loc.). Violent thunder was employed by Jehovah as a means of intimidating the Philistines in their attack upon the Israelites, while Samuel was offering the burnt-offering (1Sa_7:10; Sir_46:17). Homer represents Jupiter as interposing in a battle with thunder and lightning (Iliad, 8:75, etc.; 17:594; see also Spence, Polymetis, Dial. 13:211). The term thunder was transferred to the war-shout of a military leader (Job_39:25), and hence- Jehovah is described as “causing his voice to be heard” in the battle (Isa_30:30). Thunder was miraculously sent at the request of Samuel (1Sa_12:17-18). It is referred to as a natural phenomenon subject to laws originally appointed by the Creator (Job_28:26; Job_38:25; Sir_43:17); and is introduced in visions (Rev_4:5; Rev_6:1; Rev_8:5; Rev_11:19; Rev_14:2; Rev_16:18; Rev_19:6; Esther [Apoc.] 11:5). So in Rev_10:3-4, “seven thunders.” SEE SEVEN.
It is adopted as a comparison. Thus” as lightning is seen before the thunder is heard, so modesty in a person before he speaks recommends him to the favor of the auditors” (Sir_32:10; Rev_19:6,etc.). The sudden ruin of the unjust man is compared to the transitory noise of thunder (Sir_40:13); but see Arnald, ad loc. One of the sublimest metaphors in the Scriptures occurs in Job_26:14,” Lo, these are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard of him [שמוֹ, a mere whisper]; but the thunder of his power, who can understand?” Here the whisper and the thunder are admirably opposed to each other. If the former be so wonderful and overwhelming, how immeasurably more so the latter? In the sublime description of the war-horse (Job 39), he is said to perceive the battle afar off “by the thunder of the captains, and the shouting” (Job_39:25). That part of the description, however (Job_39:19), “hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?” appears to be a mistranslation. To the class of mistranslations must be referred every instance of the word “thunderbolts” in our version, a word which corresponds to no reality in nature. SEE THUNDERBOLT.
It is related (Joh_12:28) that Jesus said, “Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I haves both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Some of the people that stood by, but had not heard the words distinctly, said it had “thundered,” for the voice came from heaven; others who had caught the words supposed that God had spoken to Jesus by an angel, conformably to the Jewish opinion that God had never spoken but by the ministry of angels. Perhaps, however, thunder attended the voice, either a little before or after; comp. Exo_19:16; Exo_19:19; Rev_4:5; Rev_6:1. SEE BATH-KOL.
Thunder enters into the appellative or surname given by our Lord to James and John-Boanerges, ὅ ἐστιν, υἱοὶ βροντῆς, says Mark, “sons of thunder” (Mar_3:17). Schleusner here understands the thunder of eloquence as in Aristoph. (Achar. 530). Virgil applies a like figure to the two Scipios,” Duo fulmina belli” (En. 6:842). Others understand the allusion to be to the energy and courage, etc., of the two apostles (Lardner, Hist. of theApostles and Evangelists, 9:1; Suicer, Thesaurus, s.v. Βροντή). Theophylact says they were so called because they were great preachers and divines, ὡς μεγαλοκήρυκας καὶ θεολογικοτάτους. Others suppose the allusion to be to the proposal of these apostles to call fire from heaven on the inhospitable Samaritans (Luk_9:53-54). It is not certain when our Lord so surnamed them. SEE BOANERGES.
In a physical point of view, the most noticeable feature in connection with thunder is the extreme rarity of its occurrence during the summer months in Palestine and the adjacent countries. From the middle of April to the middle of September it is hardly ever heard. Robinson, indeed, mentions an instance of thunder in the early part of May (Researches, 1, 430), and Russell in July (Aleppo, 2, 289); but in each case it is stated to be a most unusual event. Hence it was selected by Samuel as a striking expression of the Divine displeasure towards the Israelites: “Is it not wheat harvest to- day? I will call upon the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain” (1Sa_12:17). Rain in harvest was deemed as extraordinary as snow in summer (Pro_26:1), and Jerome asserts that he had never witnessed it in the latter part of June, or in July (Comment. on Amo_4:7); the same observations apply equally to thunder, which is rarely unaccompanied with rain (Russell, 1, 72; 2, 285). Lieutenant Lynch, in the month of May, witnessed a thunder storm in the mountains of Moab, near the Dead Sea. He, says, “Before we had half ascended the pass, however, there came a shout of thunder from the dense cloud which had gathered at the summit of the gorge, followed by a rain, compared to which the gentle showers. of oar more favored clime are as dew-drops to the overflowing cistern. The black and threatening cloud soon enveloped the mountain- tops, the lightning playing across it in incessant flashes, while the loud thunder reverberated from side to side of the appalling chasm. Between the peals we soon heard a roaring: and continuous sound. It was the torrent from the rain-cloud, sweeping in a long line of foam down the steep declivity, bearing along huge fragments of rock, which, striking against each other, sounded like mimic thunder” (Expedition, p. 353). SEE LIGHTNING.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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