Psalms 29:3-9

29:3 The Lord’s shout is heard over the water; ¹ 

the majestic God thunders, ² 

the Lord appears over the surging water. ³ 

29:4 The Lord’s shout is powerful, ⁴ 

the Lord’s shout is majestic. ⁵ 

29:5 The Lord’s shout breaks ⁶  the cedars,

the Lord shatters ⁷  the cedars of Lebanon. ⁸ 

29:6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf

and Sirion ⁹  like a young ox. ¹⁰ 

29:7 The Lord’s shout strikes ¹¹  with flaming fire. ¹² 

29:8 The Lord’s shout shakes ¹³  the wilderness,

the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. ¹⁴ 

29:9 The Lord’s shout bends ¹⁵  the large trees ¹⁶ 

and strips ¹⁷  the leaves from the forests. ¹⁸ 

Everyone in his temple says, “Majestic!” ¹⁹ 

Psalms 77:17-18

77:17 The clouds poured down rain; ²⁰ 

the skies thundered. ²¹ 

Yes, your arrows ²²  flashed about.

77:18 Your thunderous voice was heard in the wind;

the lightning bolts lit up the world;

the earth trembled and shook. ²³ 

Ezekiel 10:5

10:5 The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard from the outer court, like the sound of the sovereign God ²⁴  when he speaks.

John 12:28-29

12:28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, ²⁵  “I have glorified it, ²⁶  and I will glorify it ²⁷  again.” 12:29 The crowd that stood there and heard the voice ²⁸  said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to him. ²⁹ 

Revelation 11:12

11:12 Then ³⁰  they ³¹  heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” So the two prophets ³²  went up to heaven in a cloud while ³³  their enemies stared at them.

Revelation 11:15

The Seventh Trumpet

11:15 Then ³⁴  the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying:

“The kingdom of the world

has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of his Christ, ³⁵ 

and he will reign for ever and ever.”

Revelation 11:19

11:19 Then ³⁶  the temple of God in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was visible within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, roaring, ³⁷  crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm. ³⁸ 

[29:3]  ¹ tn Heb “the voice of the Lord [is] over the water.” As the next line makes clear, the “voice of the Lord” is here the thunder that accompanies a violent storm. The psalm depicts the Lord in the role of a warrior-king, so the thunder is his battle cry, as it were.

[29:3]  ² tn The Hebrew perfect verbal form is probably descriptive. In dramatic fashion the psalmist portrays the Lord coming in the storm to do battle with his enemies and to vindicate his people.

[29:3]  ³ tn Traditionally “many waters.” The geographical references in the psalm (Lebanon, Sirion, Kadesh) suggest this is a reference to the Mediterranean Sea (see Ezek 26:19; 27:26). The psalmist describes a powerful storm moving in from the sea and sweeping over the mountainous areas north of Israel. The “surging waters” may symbolize the hostile enemies of God who seek to destroy his people (see Pss 18:17; 32:6; 77:20; 93:4; 144:7; Isa 17:13; Jer 51:55; Ezek 26:19; Hab 3:15). In this case the Lord is depicted as elevated above and sovereign over the raging waters.

[29:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “the voice of the Lord [is] accompanied by strength.”

[29:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “the voice of the Lord [is] accompanied by majesty.”

[29:5]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew participial form draws attention to the durative nature of the action being described.

[29:5]  ⁷ tn The prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive here and in v. 6a carry on the descriptive function of the preceding participle (see GKC 329 §111.u). The verb שָׁבַר (shavar) appears in the Qal in the first line of the verse, and in the Piel in the second line. The verb, which means “break” in the Qal, appears thirty-six times in the Piel, always with multiple objects (the object is either a collective singular or grammatically plural or dual form). The Piel may highlight the repetition of the pluralative action, or it may suggest an intensification of action, indicating repeated action comprising a whole, perhaps with the nuance “break again and again, break in pieces.” Another option is to understand the form as resultative: “make broken” (see IBHS 404-7 §24.3).

[29:5]  ⁸ sn The cedars of the Lebanon forest were well-known in ancient Israel for their immense size. Here they may symbolize the arrogant enemies of God (see Isa 2:12-13).

[29:6]  ⁹ sn Sirion is another name for Mount Hermon (Deut 3:9).

[29:6]  ¹⁰ sn Lebanon and Sirion are compared to frisky young animals (a calf…a young ox) who skip and jump. The thunderous shout of the Lord is so powerful, one can see the very mountains shake on the horizon.

[29:7]  ¹¹ tn The verb normally means “to hew [stone or wood],” or “to hew out.” In Hos 6:5 it seems to mean “cut in pieces,” “knock down,” or perhaps “hack” (see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Hosea [AB], 428). The Ugaritic cognate can mean “assault.” In v. 7 the verb seems to have a similar meaning, perhaps “attack, strike.” The phrase “flames of fire” is an adverbial accusative; the Lord’s shout is accompanied by “flames of fire,” that is, lightning bolts.

[29:7]  ¹² sn The Lord’s shout strikes with flaming fire. The short line has invited textual emendation, but its distinct, brief form may highlight the statement, which serves as the axis of a chiastic structure encompassing vv. 5-9: (A) the Lord’s shout destroys the forest (v. 5); (B) the Lord’s shout shakes the terrain (v. 6); (C) the Lord’s shout is accompanied by destructive lightning (v. 7); (B´) the Lord’s shout shakes the terrain (v. 8); (A´) the Lord’s shout destroys the forest (v. 9).

[29:8]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal forms are descriptive in function; the psalmist depicts the action as underway.

[29:8]  ¹⁴ sn Kadesh. The references to Lebanon and Sirion in v. 6 suggest this is a reference to the northern Kadesh, located north of Damascus, not the southern Kadesh mentioned so often in the OT. See M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:178.

[29:9]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form is descriptive in function; the psalmist depicts the action as underway.

[29:9]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “the deer.” Preserving this reading, some translate the preceding verb, “causes [the deer] to give premature birth” (cf. NEB, NASB). But the Polel of חוּל/חִיל (khul/khil) means “give birth,” not “cause to give birth,” and the statement “the Lord’s shout gives birth to deer” is absurd. In light of the parallelism (note “forests” in the next line) and v. 5, it is preferable to emend אַיָּלוֹת (’ayyalot, “deer”) to אֵילוֹת (’elot, “large trees”) understanding the latter as an alternate form of the usual plural form אַיָּלִים (’ayyalim).

[29:9]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is used in Joel 1:7 of locusts stripping the leaves from a tree. The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the descriptive function of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.

[29:9]  ¹⁸ tn The usual form of the plural of יַעַר (ya’ar, “forest”) is יְעָרִים (yÿ’arim). For this reason some propose an emendation to יְעָלוֹת (yÿ’alot, “female mountain goats”) which would fit nicely in the parallelism with “deer” (cf. NEB “brings kids early to birth”). In this case one would have to understand the verb חָשַׂף (khasaf) to mean “cause premature birth,” an otherwise unattested homonym of the more common חָשַׂף (“strip bare”).

[29:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “In his temple, all of it says, ‘Glory.’”

[77:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “water.”

[77:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “a sound the clouds gave.”

[77:17]  ²² tn The lightning accompanying the storm is portrayed as the Lord’s “arrows” (see v. 18).

[77:18]  ²³ tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a preterite or as an imperfect with past progressive force.

[10:5]  ²⁴ tn The name (“El Shaddai”) has often been translated “God Almighty,” primarily because Jerome translated it omnipotens (“all powerful”) in the Latin Vulgate. There has been much debate over the meaning of the name. For discussion see W. F. Albright, “The Names Shaddai and Abram,” JBL 54 (1935): 173-210; R. Gordis, “The Biblical Root sdy-sd,” JTS 41 (1940): 34-43; and especially T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 69-72.

[12:28]  ²⁵ tn Or “from the sky” (see note on 1:32).

[12:28]  ²⁶ tn “It” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[12:28]  ²⁷ tn “It” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[12:29]  ²⁸ tn “The voice” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[12:29]  ²⁹ tn Grk “Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” The direct discourse in the second half of v. 29 was converted to indirect discourse in the translation to maintain the parallelism with the first half of the verse, which is better in keeping with English style.

[11:12]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[11:12]  ³¹ tn Though the nearest antecedent to the subject of ἤκουσαν (hkousan) is the people (“those who were watching them”), it could also be (based on what immediately follows) that the two prophets are the ones who heard the voice.

[11:12]  ³² tn Grk “they”; the referent (the two prophets) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:12]  ³³ tn The conjunction καί (kai) seems to be introducing a temporal clause contemporaneous in time with the preceding clause.

[11:15]  ³⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[11:15]  ³⁵ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[11:19]  ³⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence on events within the vision.

[11:19]  ³⁷ tn Or “sounds,” “voices.” It is not entirely clear what this refers to. BDAG 1071 s.v. φωνή 1 states, “In Rv we have ἀστραπαὶ καὶ φωναὶ καὶ βρονταί (cp. Ex 19:16) 4:5; 8:5; 11:19; 16:18 (are certain other sounds in nature thought of here in addition to thunder, as e.g. the roar of the storm?…).”

[11:19]  ³⁸ tn Although BDAG 1075 s.v. χάλαζα gives the meaning “hail” here, it is not clear whether the adjective μεγάλη (megalh) refers to the intensity of the storm or the size of the individual hailstones, or both.