Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:16
When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Jeremiah records the LORD’s declaration of sovereign control over creation, delivered within a judgment oracle against Babylon. This statement immediately follows a description of God establishing the earth and precedes a condemnation of idolatry.
The words — The Hebrew term קֹל (kol) denotes the sound of the thunder, while הֲמוֹן (hamon) describes the roaring tumult of the waters. These terms ground the cosmic imagery in concrete auditory and physical phenomena rather than abstract power.
The thread — This depiction of divine control over atmospheric forces appears in Psalms 135:7, which repeats the cloud imagery, Psalms 18:13, which links thunder to divine voice, and Jonah 1:4, where God hurled a storm upon the sea. The motif consistently portrays weather as an instrument of sovereign will rather than natural chance.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that atmospheric power belongs exclusively to the Creator, not to crafted idols. It requires the reader to assess authority by observable creation rather than human-made representations.
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
When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
Cross-references
- Psalms 135:7 He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
- Psalms 18:13 The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded—hailstones and coals of fire.
- Jonah 1:4 Then the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship was in danger of breaking apart.
- Jeremiah 10:12 The LORD made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
- Genesis 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside.
- Exodus 10:13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and throughout that day and night the LORD sent an east wind across the land. By morning the east wind had brought the locusts.
- Exodus 10:19 And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind that carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust remained anywhere in Egypt.
- Exodus 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,
- Job 36:26 Indeed, God is great—beyond our knowledge; the number of His years is unsearchable.
- Job 37:2 Listen closely to the thunder of His voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.