After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard.
Ver. 4. After it a voice roareth] After it, that is, after the lightning, it thundereth; indeed, before, or at least together with it; but the lightning is seen before the thunder is heard, because the sense of hearing is slower than the sense of seeing, thus fire is first seen in a gun ere the report is heard; the axe of the wood cutter is up for a second blow ere we hear the first, if any way distant, Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures (Horat.). And besides, as R. Levi well observeth here, that the sight of the lightning may come from heaven to us, there needeth no time; because our eyes reach up thither in an instant; but that a sound may come there hence to us (in regard to the distance, and because the air must be beaten and many times impressed as into so many circles) there must be some space of time; neither can it be done so suddenly.
He thundereth with the voice of his excellency] Or, of his height, or of his pride. Proud persons think themselves high, and use to speak big swollen words of vanity, bubbles of words, as St Peter calls them. If they be crossed never so little, verbis bacchantur, et cum quodam vocis impetu loquuntur, oh the tragedies, the blusters, the terrible thunderous cracks of fierce and furious language that follow thereupon. Some have been threatened to death, as Cornelius Gallus was by Augustus Caesar; and Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor, by Queen Elizabeth. How much more should men quake and even expire before the thunder of the Most High, or wriggle as worms do into their holes, the corners of the earth!
And he will not stay them when his voice is heard] Them, that is, new flashes of lightning; or rain and hail, which usually break out either while it thundereth, or presently after, in a most vehement and impetuous manner.