Jeremiah 10:12-13

10:12 The Lord is the one who ¹  by his power made the earth.

He is the one who by his wisdom established the world.

And by his understanding he spread out the skies.

10:13 When his voice thunders, ²  the heavenly ocean roars.

He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. ³ 

He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.

He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. ⁴ 

¹ tn The words “The Lord is” are not in the text. They are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation here because of the possible confusion of who the subject is due to the parenthetical address to the people of Israel in v. 11. The first two verbs are participles and should not merely be translated as the narrative past. They are predicate nominatives of an implied copula intending to contrast the Lord as the one who made the earth with the idols which did not.

² tn Heb “At the voice of his giving.” The idiom “to give the voice” is often used for thunder (cf. BDB 679 s.v. נָתַן Qal.1.x).

³ tn Heb “from the ends of the earth.”

⁴ tn Heb “he brings out the winds from his storehouses.”