Exodus 19:18

19:18 Now Mount Sinai was completely covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a great furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently.

Psalms 114:6-7

114:6 Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,

like lambs, O hills?

114:7 Tremble, O earth, before the Lord –

before the God of Jacob,

Habakkuk 3:10

3:10 When the mountains see you, they shake.

The torrential downpour sweeps through.

The great deep shouts out;

it lifts its hands high.


sn The image is that of a large kiln, as in Gen 19:28.

tn This is the same word translated “trembled” above (v. 16).

tn Heb “a heavy rain of waters passes by.” Perhaps the flash floods produced by the downpour are in view here.

sn The great deep, which is to be equated with the sea (vv. 8, 15), is a symbol of chaos and represents the Lord’s enemies.

sn Lifting the hands here suggests panic and is accompanied by a cry for mercy (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19). The forces of chaos cannot withstand the Lord’s power revealed in the storm.