Bible Strands
Exodus 19:16
On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the ram’s horn went out, so that all the people in the camp trembled.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports the third day at Sinai, the morning after Moses told the people to prepare and stay away from their wives (v.15). The people are in the camp when the phenomena strike.
The words — קֹלֹת (qolot, H6963) is "thunder claps," from the root qol (voice, sound); the same root later names the voice of God speaking from the mountain (19:19).
The thread — Hebrews 12:18 compresses this scene into "darkness, gloom, and storm" as the Sinai mountain's signature. Psalms 18:11 and Hebrews 12:21 echo the same terrifying, enveloping presence.
Why it lands — The verse presents the encounter with God as sensory overload that produces trembling, not comfort. It asks the reader to hold that the divine presence is first overwhelming before it is anything else.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 12:18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm;
- Psalms 18:11 He made darkness His hiding place, and storm clouds a canopy around Him.
- Hebrews 12:21 The sight was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
- Revelation 4:1 After this I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had previously heard speak to me like a trumpet was saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”
- Psalms 77:18 Your thunder resounded in the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked.
- Revelation 4:5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven spirits of God.
- Revelation 8:5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth; and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
- Revelation 11:19 Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
- Exodus 9:23 So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. So the LORD rained down hail upon the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 19:9 The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you, and they will always put their trust in you.” And Moses relayed to the LORD what the people had said.