The earth shook. — The sudden burst of the storm is the Divine answer to the sufferer’s prayer. For similar manifestations comp. Psalms 68:7-8; Psalms 77:14-20; Amos 9:5; Micah 1:3; Habakkuk 3:4; but here the colours are more vivid, and the language more intense. In fact, the whole realm of poetry cannot show a finer feeling for nature in her wrath. We first hear the rumbling of the earth, probably earthquake preceding the storm (for volcanic phenomena of Palestine see Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, 124), or possibly only its distant threatening. Comp.
“Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load.”
BYRON.
Foundations also of the hills. — In Sam., “of the heavens” — i.e., the hills, called also “the pillars of heaven” (Job 26:11).