And lightning are significant manifestations of the power of God, and emblems of his presence, Exodus 19:16 1 Samuel 2:10 12:17 Psalms 18:13. Thunder is poetically called "the voice of the Lord" in the sublime description of a thunder-storm in Psalms 29:11;

"The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;

The God of glory thundereth;

The Lord is upon many waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful;

The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars;

Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon," etc.

See also Job 37:1-5 40:9 Jeremiah 10:13. In illustration of Ps

29:9, Moffat, while describing the thunder-storms of South Africa,

say that the antelopes flee in consternation; and that he has

observed the Bechuanas starting off early on the morning following

such a storm in quest of young antelopes prematurely born. In Ps

78:48, "hot thunderbolts" means lightning.

Often referred to in Scripture (Job 40:9; Psalms 77:18; 104:7). James and John were called by our Lord "sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17). In Job 39:19, instead of "thunder," as in the Authorized Version, the Revised Version translates (ra'amah) by "quivering main" (marg., "shaking"). Thunder accompanied the giving of the law at Sinai (Exodus 19:16). It was regarded as the voice of God (Job 37:2; Psalms 18:13; 81:7; Compare John 12:29). In answer to Samuel's prayer (1 Samuel 12:17,18), God sent thunder, and "all the people greatly feared," for at such a season (the wheat-harvest) thunder and rain were almost unknown in Palestine.

THUN'DER, n. L. tonitru, from tono, to sound.

1. The sound which follows an explosion of electricity or lightning; the report of a discharge of electrical fluid, that is, of its passage from one cloud to another, or from a cloud to the earth, or from the earth to a cloud. When this explosion is near to a person, the thunder is a rattling or clattering sound, and when distant, the sound is heavy and rumbling. The fact is in some degree the same with the report of a cannon. This sharpness or acuteness of the sound when near, and the rumbling murmur when distant, are the principal distinctions in thunder. Thunder is not lightning, but the effect of it. See Johnson's Dictionary, under thunder.

There were thunders and lightnings. Ex.19.

2. Thunder is used for lightning, or for a thunderbolt, either originally through ignorance, or by way of metaphor, or because the lightning and thunder are closely united.

The revenging gods

'Gainst parricides all the thunder bend.

3. Any loud noise; as the thunder of cannon.

Sons of thunder. Mark 3.

4. Denunciation published; as the thunders of the Vatican.

THUN'DER, v.i. To sound, rattle or roar, as an explosion of electricity.

Canst thou thunder with a voice like him? Job 40.

1. To make a loud noise, particularly a heavy sound of some continuance.

His dreadful voice no more

Would thunder in my ears.

2. To rattle, or give a heavy rattling sound.

And roll the thund'ring chariot o'er the ground.

THUN'DER, v.t. To emit with noise and terror.

Oracles severe

Were daily thunder'd in our gen'ral's ear.

1. To publish any denunciation or threat.

An archdeacon, as being a prelate, may thunder out an ecclesiastical censure.

is hardly ever heard in Palestine form the middle of April to the middle of September; hence it was selected by Samuel as a striking expression of the divine displeasure toward the Israelites. (1 Samuel 12:17) Rain in harvest was deemed as extraordinary as snow in summer, (Proverbs 26:1) and Jerome states that he had never witnessed it in the latter part of June or in July. Comm. on (Amos 4:7) In the imaginative philosophy of the Hebrews, thunder was regarded as the voice of Jehovah, (Job 37:2,4,5; 40:9; Psalms 18:13; 29:3-9; Isaiah 30:30,31) who dwelt behind the thunder-cloud. (Psalms 81:7) Thunder was, to the mind of the Jew, the symbol of divine power (Psalms 29:3) etc., and vengeance. (1 Samuel 2:10; 2 Samuel 22:14)