Psalms 29:7
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire.
American King James Version (AKJV)
The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire.
American Standard Version (ASV)
The voice of Jehovah cleaveth the flames of fire.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
At the voice of the Lord flames of fire are seen.
Webster's Revision
The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire.
World English Bible
Yahweh's voice strikes with flashes of lightning.
English Revised Version (ERV)
The voice of the LORD cleaveth the flames of fire.
Clarke's Psalms 29:7 Bible Commentary
Divideth the flames of fire - The forked zigzag lightning is the cause of thunder; and in a thunder-storm these liahtnings are variously dispersed, smiting houses, towers, trees, men, and cattle, in different places.
Barnes's Psalms 29:7 Bible Commentary
Divideth the flames of fire - Margin, "cutteth out." The Hebrew word - חצב châtsab - means properly "to cut, to hew, to hew out;" as, for example, stones. The allusion here is undoubtedly to lightning; and the image is either that it seems to be cut out, or cut into tongues and streaks - or, more probably, that the "clouds" seem to be cut or hewed so as to make openings or paths for the lightning. The eye is evidently fixed on the clouds, and on the sudden flash of lightning, as if the clouds had been "cleaved" or "opened" for the passage of it. The idea of the psalmist is that the "voice of the Lord," or the thunder, seems to cleave or open the clouds for the flames of fire to play amidst the tempest. Of course this language, as well as that which has been already noticed Psalm 29:5, must be taken as denoting what "appears" to the eye, and not as a scientific statement of the reality in the case. The rolling thunder not only shakes the cedars, and makes the lofty trees on Lebanon and Sirion skip like a calf or a young unicorn, but it rends asunder or cleaves the clouds, and cuts out paths for the flames of fire.
Wesley's Psalms 29:7 Bible Commentary
29:7 The flames - The lightnings.