77:18 Your thunderous voice was heard in the wind;
the lightning bolts lit up the world;
the earth trembled and shook. 1
144:5 O Lord, make the sky sink 2 and come down! 3
Touch the mountains and make them smolder! 4
144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!
Shoot your arrows and rout them! 5
19:16 On 6 the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a dense 7 cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud 8 horn; 9 all the people who were in the camp trembled. 19:17 Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain. 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, 10 and the whole mountain shook 11 violently.
1 tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a preterite or as an imperfect with past progressive force.
2 tn The Hebrew verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “to [cause to] bend; to [cause to] bow down.” For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden. Here the
3 tn Heb “so you might come down.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The same type of construction is utilized in v. 6.
4 tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.
5 sn Arrows and lightning bolts are associated in other texts (see Pss 18:14; 77:17-18; Zech 9:14), as well as in ancient Near Eastern art (see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” [Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983], 187).
6 tn Heb “and it was on.”
7 tn Heb “heavy” (כָּבֵד, kaved).
8 tn Literally “strong” (חָזָק, khazaq).
9 tn The word here is שֹׁפָר (shofar), the normal word for “horn.” This word is used especially to announce something important in a public event (see 1 Kgs 1:34; 2 Sam 6:15). The previous word used in the context (v. 16) was יֹבֵל (yovel, “ram’s horn”).
10 sn The image is that of a large kiln, as in Gen 19:28.
11 tn This is the same word translated “trembled” above (v. 16).