a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular absolute
roareth
יִשְׁאַגyish.'ag-
H7580
to rumble or moan · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
thundereth
יַ֭רְעֵםYar.'em
H7481
to tumble · verb, hiphil jussive, 3rd person masculine singular
voice
בְּק֣וֹלbe.Kol
H6963
a voice or sound · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
excellency
גְּאוֹנ֑וֹge.'o.No
H1347
arrogance or majesty · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
stay
יְ֝עַקְּבֵ֗םye.'a.ke.Vem
H6117
to seize by the heel · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
voice
קוֹלֽוֹko.Lo
H6963
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
heard
יִשָּׁמַ֥עyi.sha.Ma'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 29:3-9 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.
Psalms 68:33 To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice.
Exodus 15:7-8 And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed t…
Deuteronomy 33:26 There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky.
Job 36:27-33 For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 37:1-5
Thunder and lightning, which usually go together, are sensible indications of the glory and majesty, the power and terror, of Almighty God, one to the ear and the other to the eye; in these God leaves not himself without witness of his greatness, as, in the rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, he leaves not himself without witness of his goodness (Act 14:17), even to the most stupid and unthinking. Though there are natural causes and useful effects of them, which the philosophers undertake to account for, yet they seem chiefly designed by the Creator to startle and awaken the slumbering world of mankind to the consideration of a God above them. The eye and the ear are the two learning sens…
The thunderclap follows at an interval after the flash.
stay them--He will not hold back the lightnings (Job 37:3), when the thunder is heard [MAURER]. Rather, take "them" as the usual concomitants of thunder, namely, rain and hail [UMBREIT] (Job 40:9).
Adam Clarke on Job 37:4
After it a voice roareth - After the flash has been seen, the peal is heard; and this will be more or fewer seconds after the peal, in proportion to the distance of the thunder cloud from the ear. Lightning traverses any space without any perceivable succession of time; nothing seems to be any obstacle to its progress. A multitude of persons taking hands, the first and the last connected with the electric machine, all feel the shock in the same instant; and were there a chain as conductor to go round the globe, the last would feel the shock in the same moment as the first. But as sound depends on the undulations of the air for its propagation, and is known to travel at the rate of only 1142…
After it a voice roareth,.... After the lightning comes a violent crack or clap of thunder, which is like the roaring of a lion. Such is the order of thunder and lightning, according to our sense and apprehension of them; otherwise in nature they are together: but the reasons given why the lightning is seen before, and so the same in the flash and report of a gun, are, because the sense of seeing is quicker than the sense of hearing (y); and the motion of light is quicker than that of sound; which latter is the truest reason (z). The roaring voice of thunder may be an emblem of the thunder of the law; its dreadful volleys of curses, vengeance, and wrath on the breakers of it, as delivered ou…
The Church Fathers
"After him we heard a shuddering voice. After his first advent, the trumpet of the last day will resound in the light of his second advent (3). "It will be the voice of his pride. By his pride he designates his greatness, for he was humble in his first advent. "And when that voice is heard, all will be finished without return. Now, then, let us seek the Lord while we can find him (4); that is to say, to possess it by a real and sincere faith. We will not be able to do it any more, when he comes to judge us, and we hear from him the words, "Go to eternal fire." The penance of the infidels will then be too late and fruitless.
After Him a sound will roar. He will thunder with the voice of His greatness. And He will not be enquired into, when His Voice hath been heard. For the Lord doubtless turns into sorrow the life of him whom He has filled with His illumination; and the more He suggests to the enlightened mind eternal punishments, the more cruelly does He weary it with sorrow for its past wickedness; and a man grieves at what he was, because he now begins to discern the good which he was not. He hates himself, as he remembers himself to have been. He loves himself as he discerns he ought to have been; and now loves only the bitterness of penitence; because he carefully considers in what great pleasures he has sinned through self-indulgence. It is well said then, After Him a sound will roar. Because when God enters the mind, it is doubtless plain, that the sorrow of repentance immediately follows, in order that that soul may now delight in wholesome sorrow, which used to rejoice in its iniquity with a lamentable mirth. But the more abundantly a sin is lamented, the higher is the knowledge of the truth attained. Because the conscience, before polluted, is renewed by a baptism of tears, to behold the light within. Whence after the roaring of repentance, it is fitly subjoined, He will thunder with the voice of His greatness. For God thunders with the voice of His greatness, when, to us who have been now well prepared by sorrow, He makes known, how great He is in His doings above. For thunder proceeds, as it were, from heaven, when the look of grace strikes us slumbering in carelessness and neglect, with sudden fear; and when lying on the ground we hear a sound from above: for thinking of things of earth, we are suddenly alarmed at the sentence of terror from above; and our mind, which used to slumber with evil security in things below, is now properly alarmed and anxious for things above. But we know not, in what way the terror of this secret visitation enters into us: nor is it discerned by the eye of the very mind, whose purpose is changed for the better. Whence it is fitly subjoined, And He will not be enquired into, when His Voice hath been heard. The voice of the Lord is heard, when the breathing of His grace is conceived within the mind; when the insensibility of our inward deafness is broken through, and the heart, excited to zeal for the noblest love, is pierced by the…
Dictionary and topics
Lightning — Frequently referred to by the sacred writers (Nah. 1:3-6). Thunder and lightning are spoken of as tokens of God’s wrath (2 Sam. 22:15; Job 28:26; 37:4; Ps. 135:7; 144:6; Zech. 9:14). They represent…
Thunder — 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,…
Religion · NATURAL — NATURAL
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
1 Yea, at this my heart trembleth
And tottereth from its place.
2 Hear, O hear the roar of His voice,
And the murmur that goeth out of His mouth.
3 He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven,
And His lightning unto the ends of the earth.
4 After it roareth the voice of the thunder,
He thundereth with the voice of His majesty,
And spareth not the lightnings, when His voice is heard.
5 God thundereth with His voice marvellously,
Doing great things, incomprehensible to us.
Louis Bridel is perhaps right when he inserts after Job 36 the observation: L'clair brille, la tonnerre gronde. לזאת does not refer to the phenomenon of the storm which is represented in the mind, but to that which is now to…
The Old Testament often associates thunder with God’s voice (36:29, 33; 37:5; 38:1; Exod 19:16-19; Ps 104:7).
Rashi on Job 37:4
In its wake [i.e., in the wake] of that light, the thunder roars, and it thunders with the voice of its pride. Those are the lightnings and the thunders, which bring the rain.
and He will not cut them off The Omnipresent [will not cut off the thunder and the lightning].
for...will be heard before Him the voice of the one who prays.
He will...cut them off Heb. יעקבם, He will cut them off, [and in the language of the Mishnah we learned (Sotah 16a): in three instances, the halachah supplants (עוקבת) the text].
