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THUNDER.—There is no finer description of a thunderstorm than that of Psa_29:1-11. In a land of high mountains and deep gorges, split throughout its length by the great cleft of the Jordan, the effect of thunder is peculiarly terrible. In Palestine it is confined almost entirely to winter (1Sa_12:17 f.), but the writer once witnessed a terrific storm late in April, among the Gilead uplands. It is invariably accompanied by rain. According to poetic and popular Ideas, thunder was the voice of God (Psa_104:7, Job_37:4 etc.), which a soul gifted with insight might understand and interpret (Joh_12:28 f.; cf. Mar_1:11, Mat_3:17 etc.). It is the expression of His resistless power (1Sa_2:10, Psa_18:13 etc.), and of His inexorable vengeance (Isa_30:30 etc.). Thunder plays a part in afflicting the Egyptians (Exo_9:23 ff.), at the delivery of the Law (Exo_19:16; Exo_20:18), and in discomfiting the Philistines (1Sa_7:10). It is not guided by caprice, but by the will of God (Job_28:26; Job_38:25). It appears largely in the more terrible imagery of the Apocalypse. For ‘Sons of Thunder,’ see Boanerges.
W. Ewing.