Yahweh also thundered in the sky. The Most High uttered his voice: hailstones and coals of fire.
Parallel translations
- KJV The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
- BSB The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded—hailstones and coals of fire.
- NKJV The Lord thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire.
- NASB The Lord also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire.
- NLT The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded amid the hail and burning coals.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Yahweh thunders from heaven as the Most High utters his voice. It matters because God's powerful voice in judgment defends his people.
Overview
David hears Yahweh thundering in the sky, the Most High lifting his voice amid hail and coals of fire. Thunder as God's voice signals his sovereign power directed against the wicked. The same God whose voice shakes the heavens speaks words of salvation and judgment that find their center in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 104:7At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.
- 1 Sam 7:10As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines came near to battle against Israel; but Yahweh thundered with a great thunder on that day on the Philistines, and confused them; and they were struck down before Israel.
- Ps 140:10Let burning coals fall on them. Let them be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, from where they never rise.
- Ps 29:3–4Yahweh’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters.
- Deut 32:24They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
- Hab 3:5Plague went before him, and pestilence followed his feet.
- Exod 20:18All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.
- Rev 19:6I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!
- Rev 4:5Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders. There were seven lamps of fire burning before his throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
- Job 40:9Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?
- Rev 8:5The angel took the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it on the earth. There followed thunders, sounds, lightnings, and an earthquake.
- Ps 78:48He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
- Ps 120:3–4What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?
- John 12:29The multitude therefore, who stood by and heard it, said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
- Ezek 10:5The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 18:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.