Thunder

Thunder - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

Often referred to in Scripture (Job 40:9; Ps. 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 (Ex. 19:16). It was regarded as the voice of God (Job 37:2; Ps. 18:13; 81:7; comp. John 12:29). In answer to Samuel's prayer (1 Sam. 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.

Thunder - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

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. Exo 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.

thun'-der (ra`am (1Sa 2:10; Job 26:14; 39:19; 40:9; Ps 77:18; 81:7; 104:7; Isa 29:6), qol, "a voice" (Ex 9:23; 1Sa 7:10; 12:17; Job 28:26; 38:25)): Thunder is the noise resulting from the lightning discharge. It is very common in the winter storms of Syria and Palestine and occurs in the extra-season storms. Thunder accompanied the storm of hail in Egypt at the time of the plagues: "The Lord sent thunder and hail" (Ex 9:23).

Lightning and thunder are indications of the power of Yahweh and His might. "The thunder of his power who can understand?" (Job 26:14); "The God of glory thundereth" (Ps 29:3). Yahweh also confused the Philistines with thunder (1Sa 7:10), and His foes were "visited of Yahweh of hosts with thunder" (Isa 29:6). Thunder was regarded as the voice of Yahweh: "God thundereth with the voice of his excellency" (Job 37:4), and God spoke to Jesus in the thunder (bronte, Joh 12:29).

See also LIGHTNING.

Alfred H. Joy