The voice. — The invocation to the angels over, the storm bursts, and seven successive peals of thunder mark its course of fury and destruction. It is first heard rolling over the waters from the west (comp. 1 Kings 18:44), unless the “waters” and “many waters,” as in Psalms 18:11-12, refer to the gathered masses of rain-cloud, when we might compare
“Then broke the thunder
Like a whole sea overhead.”
BROWNING: Pippa Passes.
The Hebrew kôl (“voice”), used also of any loud sound (2 Samuel 15:10, of the trumpet; Ezekiel 1:24, of water), is sometimes used (Genesis 4:10; Isaiah 52:8) to call attention, like our “Hark!” So Ewald here. Others refer it to the thunder, as in Psalms 77:18; but it seems better to take it for the combined noise of the storm, thunder, wind, and rain, as in Shakespeare —
“The gods who keep this pudder o’er our heads.”