At this also my heart trembleth, and is moved out of his place.
Ver. 1. At this also my heart trembleth] At this? At what? at the thunder, whereof he had spoken before, and more meant to speak; and which he heard at that instant (as it may seem by the next verse), and therefore no wonder that his heart trembled, and was moved out of its place by an extraordinary palpitation, or, as the Tigurines have it, luxation. Thunder is so terrible, that it hath forced from the greatest atheist an acknowledgment of a deity. Suetonius telleth us of Caligula (that monster, who dared his Jove to a duel), that if it thundered and lightened but a little, he would hoodwink himself; but if much, he would creep under a bed, and be ready to run into a mouse hole, as we say. Augustus Caesar also was so afraid of thunder and lightning, that always and everywhere he carried about him the skin of a sea calf, which those heathens fondly held to be a preservative in such cases, and if at any time there arose a great storm he ran into a dark vault. The Romans held it unlawful to keep court, Iove tonante, fulgurante, in a time of thunder and lightning, as Cicero telleth us (De Divin. l. 2). And Isidore deriveth tonitru a terrendo, thunder from its terror; and others from its tone, or rushing, crashing noise, frightening all creatures. At the voice of thy thunder they are afraid, Psalms 104:7, which one, not unfitly, calls David's medicine.