Lightning
Lightning (properly בָּרָק, barak', Da 10:6; collectively lightninqs, Ps 144:6; 2Sa 22:15; Ezr 1:11; plur. Job 38:35; Ps 18:15; Ps 77:19, etc.; trop. the brightness of a glittering sword, Eze 21:15,32; De 32:41, etc.; (ἀστραπή, Mt 24:27; Mt 28:3; Lu 10:18; Lu 11:36; Lu 17:24; Re 4:5; Re 8:5; Re 11:19; Re 16:18; once בָּזָק, baza'c, a flash of lightning, Eze 1:14; less properly אוֹר, dr, light, Job 37:3,11,24; לִפַּיד, lalppid', a burning torch, Ex 20:18; fig. חָזַיז, chaziz', an arrow, i.e., ethunder-fash, Zec 10:1; comp. Job 28:26; Job 38:25). Travelers state that in Syria lightnings are frequent in the autumnal months. Seldom a night passes without a great deal of lightning, which is sometimes accompanied by thunder and sometimes not. A squall of wind and clouds of (dust are the uasual forerunners of the first rains. SEE PALESTINE. To these natural phenomena the sacred writers frequently allude. In directing their energies, "the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet; the mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence; his fury is poured out like fire. and the rocks are thrown down by him" (Na 1:3-6). The terrors of the divine wrath are often represented by thundler and lightning; and thunder, on account of its awful impression on the minds of mortals. is also spoken of in Scripture as the "voice of the Lord" (Ps 135:7; Ps 144:6; 2Sa 22:15; Job 28:26; Job 37:4-5; Job 38:25; Job 40:9; Zec 9:14; Re 4:5; Re 16:18 -21). On account of the fire attending their light,
they are the symbols of edicts enforced with destruction to those who oppose them, or who hinder others from giving obedience to them (Ps 144:6; Zec 9:14; Ps 18:14; Re 4:5; Re 16:18). Thunders and lightnings, when they proceed from the throne of God (as in Re 4:5), are fit representations of God's glorious and awful majesty; but whenfire comes down from heaven upon the earth, it expresses some judgment of God on the world (as in Re 20:9). The voices, thunders, lightnings, and great hail, in Re 16:18-21, are interpreted expressly of an exceeding great plague, so that men blasphemned on account of it (see Wemyss, Symb. Dict. s.v.). SEE THUNDER.
