Discovery BoxPsalms 78:48
Context78:48 He rained hail down on their cattle, 1
and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock. 2
Psalms 104:7
Context104:7 Your shout made the waters retreat;
at the sound of your thunderous voice they hurried off –
Exodus 20:18
Context20:18 All the people were seeing 3 the thundering and the lightning, and heard 4 the sound of the horn, and saw 5 the mountain smoking – and when 6 the people saw it they trembled with fear 7 and kept their distance. 8
Exodus 20:1
Context20:1 9 God spoke all these words: 10
Exodus 7:10
Context7:10 When 11 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, they did so, just as the Lord had commanded them – Aaron threw 12 down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a snake. 13
Job 40:9
Context40:9 Do you have an arm as powerful as God’s, 14
and can you thunder with a voice like his?
John 12:29
Context12:29 The crowd that stood there and heard the voice 15 said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to him. 16
Revelation 4:5
Context4:5 From 17 the throne came out flashes of lightning and roaring 18 and crashes of thunder. Seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, 19 were burning in front of the throne
Revelation 8:5
Context8:5 Then 20 the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth, and there were crashes of thunder, roaring, 21 flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
Revelation 19:6
Context19:6 Then 22 I heard what sounded like the voice of a vast throng, like the roar of many waters and like loud crashes of thunder. They were shouting: 23
“Hallelujah!
[78:48] 1 tn Heb “and he turned over to the hail their cattle.”
[78:48] 2 tn Heb “and their livestock to the flames.” “Flames” here refer to the lightning bolts that accompanied the storm.
[20:18] 3 tn The participle is used here for durative action in the past time (GKC 359 §116.o).
[20:18] 4 tn The verb “to see” (רָאָה, ra’ah) refers to seeing with all the senses, or perceiving. W. C. Kaiser suggests that this is an example of the figure of speech called zeugma because the verb “saw” yokes together two objects, one that suits the verb and the other that does not. So, the verb “heard” is inserted here to clarify (“Exodus,” EBC 2:427).
[20:18] 5 tn The verb “saw” is supplied here because it is expected in English (see the previous note on “heard”).
[20:18] 6 tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated as a temporal clause to the following clause, which receives the prominence.
[20:18] 7 tn The meaning of נוּעַ (nua’) is “to shake, sway to and fro” in fear. Compare Isa 7:2 – “and his heart shook…as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.”
[20:18] 8 tn Heb “and they stood from/at a distance.”
[20:1] 9 sn This chapter is the heart of the Law of Israel, and as such is well known throughout the world. There is so much literature on it that it is almost impossible to say anything briefly and do justice to the subject. But the exposition of the book must point out that this is the charter of the new nation of Israel. These ten commands (words) form the preamble; they will be followed by the decisions (judgments). And then in chap. 24 the covenant will be inaugurated. So when Israel entered into covenant with God, they entered into a theocracy by expressing their willingness to submit to his authority. The Law was the binding constitution for the nation of Israel under Yahweh their God. It was specifically given to them at a certain time and in a certain place. The Law legislated how Israel was to live in order to be blessed by God and used by him as a kingdom of priests. In the process of legislating their conduct and their ritual for worship, the Law revealed God. It revealed the holiness of Yahweh as the standard for all worship and service, and in revealing that it revealed or uncovered sin. But what the Law condemned, the Law (Leviticus) also made provision for in the laws of the sacrifice and the feasts intended for atonement. The NT teaches that the Law was good, and perfect, and holy. But it also teaches that Christ was the end (goal) of the Law, that it ultimately led to him. It was a pedagogue, Paul said, to bring people to Christ. And when the fulfillment of the promise came in him, believers were not to go back under the Law. What this means for Christians is that what the Law of Israel revealed about God and his will is timeless and still authoritative over faith and conduct, but what the Law regulated for Israel in their existence as the people of God has been done away with in Christ. The Ten Commandments reveal the essence of the Law; the ten for the most part are reiterated in the NT because they reflect the holy and righteous nature of God. The NT often raises them to a higher standard, to guard the spirit of the Law as well as the letter.
[20:1] 10 sn The Bible makes it clear that the Law was the revelation of God at Mount Sinai. And yet study has shown that the law code’s form follows the literary pattern of covenant codes in the Late Bronze Age, notably the Hittite codes. The point of such codes is that all the covenant stipulations are appropriate because of the wonderful things that the sovereign has done for the people. God, in using a well-known literary form, was both drawing on the people’s knowledge of such to impress their duties on them, as well as putting new wine into old wineskins. The whole nature of God’s code was on a much higher level. For this general structure, see M. G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King. For the Ten Commandments specifically, see J. J. Stamm and M. E. Andrew, The Ten Commandments in Recent Research (SBT). See also some of the general articles: M. Barrett, “God’s Moral Standard: An Examination of the Decalogue,” BV 12 (1978): 34-40; C. J. H. Wright, “The Israelite Household and the Decalogue: The Social Background and Significance of Some Commandments,” TynBul 30 (1979): 101-24; J. D. Levenson, “The Theologies of Commandment in Biblical Israel,” HTR 73 (1980): 17-33; M. B. Cohen and D. B. Friedman, “The Dual Accentuation of the Ten Commandments,” Masoretic Studies 1 (1974): 7-190; D. Skinner, “Some Major Themes of Exodus,” Mid-America Theological Journal 1 (1977): 31-42; M. Tate, “The Legal Traditions of the Book of Exodus,” RevExp 74 (1977): 483-509; E. C. Smith, “The Ten Commandments in Today’s Permissive Society: A Principleist Approach,” SwJT 20 (1977): 42-58; and D. W. Buck, “Exodus 20:1-17,” Lutheran Theological Journal 16 (1982): 65-75.
[7:10] 11 tn The clause begins with the preterite and the vav (ו) consecutive; it is here subordinated to the next clause as a temporal clause.
[7:10] 12 tn Heb “and Aaron threw.”
[7:10] 13 tn The noun used here is תַּנִּין (tannin), and not the word for “serpent” or “snake” used in chap. 4. This noun refers to a large reptile, in some texts large river or sea creatures (Gen 1:21; Ps 74:13) or land creatures (Deut 32:33). This wonder paralleled Moses’ miracle in 4:3 when he cast his staff down. But this is Aaron’s staff, and a different miracle. The noun could still be rendered “snake” here since the term could be broad enough to include it.
[40:9] 14 tn Heb “do you have an arm like God?” The words “as powerful as” have been supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.
[12:29] 15 tn “The voice” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
[12:29] 16 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.
[4:5] 17 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
[4:5] 18 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?…).”
[4:5] 19 sn Some interpret the seven spirits of God as angelic beings, while others see them as a reference to the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit.
[8:5] 20 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.
[8:5] 21 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?…).”
[19:6] 22 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
[19:6] 23 tn Grk “like the voice of a large crowd…saying.” Because of the complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the words “They were.”
[19:6] 24 tc Several
[19:6] 25 tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22…κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν ὁ π. Rv 19:6.”
