Meteorology and Celestial Phenomena

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

General scriptures concerning

• Genesis 2:5–6 Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted, for the LORD God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But springs welled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.
• Genesis 27:39 His father Isaac answered him: “Behold, your dwelling place shall be away from the richness of the land, away from the dew of heaven above.
• Job 9:7 He commands the sun not to shine; He seals off the stars.
• Job 26:7–8 He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing. He wraps up the waters in His clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their own weight.
• Job 26:11 The foundations of heaven quake, astounded at His rebuke.
• Job 27:20–21 Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps him away in the night. The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
• Job 28:24–27 For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When God fixed the weight of the wind and measured out the waters, when He set a limit for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt, then He looked at wisdom and appraised it; He established it and searched it out.
• Job 29:19 My roots will spread out to the waters, and the dew will rest nightly on my branches.
• Job 36:27–33 For He draws up drops of water which distill the rain from the mist, which the clouds pour out and shower abundantly on mankind. Furthermore, who can understand how the clouds spread out, how the thunder roars from His pavilion? See how He scatters His lightning around Him and covers the depths of…
• Job 37:6–22 For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the gentle rain, ‘Pour out a mighty downpour.’ He seals up the hand of every man, so that all men may know His work. The wild animals enter their lairs; they settle down in their dens. The tempest comes from its chamber, and the cold from the dri…

Phenomena of

The deluge

• Genesis 7:8 The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground

Fire from heaven upon the cities of the plain

• Genesis 19:24–25 Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah — from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground.

Plagues of hail, and thunder, and lightning in Egypt

• Exodus 9:22–29 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that hail may fall on all the land of Egypt— on man and beast and every plant of the field throughout the land of Egypt.” So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck th…
• Psalm 78:17–23 But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High. They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness? When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can…

The plague of darkness

• Exodus 10:22–23 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and total darkness covered all the land of Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else, and for three days no one left his place. Yet all the Israelites had light in their dwellings.

The east wind that divided the Red Sea

• Exodus 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,

That brought the quails

• Numbers 11:31–32 Now a wind sent by the LORD came up, drove in quail from the sea, and brought them near the camp, about two cubits above the surface of the ground, for a day’s journey in every direction around the camp. All that day and night, and all the next day, the people stayed up gathering the quail. No one…
• Psalm 78:26–28 He stirred the east wind from the heavens and drove the south wind by His might. He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea. He felled them in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.

Pillar of cloud and fire

See Pillar

Sun stood still

• Joshua 10:12–13 On the day that the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance upon its enemies. Is this not writ…

Dew on Gideon's fleece

• Judges 6:36–40 Then Gideon said to God, “If You are going to save Israel by my hand, as You have said, then behold, I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that You are going to save Israel by my hand, as You have said.”

Stars in their courses fought against Sisera

• Judges 5:20 From the heavens the stars fought; from their courses they fought against Sisera.

Stones from heaven

• Joshua 10:11 As they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon to Azekah, the LORD cast down on them large hailstones from the sky, and more of them were killed by the hailstones than by the swords of the Israelites.

Fire from heaven at Elijah's command

• 2 Kings 1:10–14 Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And fire came down from heaven and consumed the captain and his fifty men. So the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. And the captain said to Elijah, “Man of G…

The whirlwind which carried Elijah to heaven

• 2 Kings 2:1 Shortly before the LORD took Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal,
• 2 Kings 2:11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire with horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind.

The wind under God's control

• Psalm 107:25 For He spoke and raised a tempest that lifted the waves of the sea.

The east wind

• Psalm 48:7 With a wind from the east You wrecked the ships of Tarshish.

Rain, The formation of

• Psalm 135:6–7 The LORD does all that pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and in all their depths. He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

Dew, copious

• Psalm 133:3 It is like the dew of Hermon falling on the mountains of Zion. For there the LORD has bestowed the blessing of life forevermore.

Rain in answer to Samuel's prayer

• 1 Samuel 12:16–18 Now, therefore, present yourselves and see this great thing that the LORD will do before your eyes. Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call on the LORD to send thunder and rain, so that you will know and see what a great evil you have committed in the sight of the LORD by asking for a king.”…

Elijah's prayer

• 1 Kings 18:41–45 And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the summit of Carmel, bent down on the ground, and put his face between his knees. “Go and look toward the sea,” he said to his servant. So the servant we…

Rain confuses the Philistine army

• 1 Samuel 7:10 As the Philistines drew near to fight against Israel, Samuel was offering up the burnt offering. But that day the LORD thundered loudly against the Philistines and threw them into such confusion that they fled before Israel.

Wind destroyed Job's children

• Job 1:18–19 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people and they are dead…

Darkness at the crucifixion

• Matthew 27:45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
• Luke 23:44–45 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour. The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn down the middle.

The autumnal weather on the Mediterranean

• Acts 27:9–14 By now much time had passed, and the voyage had already become dangerous because it was after the Fast. So Paul advised them, “Men, I can see that our voyage will be filled with disaster and great loss, not only to ship and cargo, but to our own lives as well.” But contrary to Paul’s advice, the ce…
• Acts 27:20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the great storm continued to batter us, we abandoned all hope of being saved.

See Astronomy

See Dew

See Hail

See Rain

Symbolical

Used in the Revelation of John

• Revelation 6:12–14 And I watched as the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind. The sky receded like…
• Revelation 7:1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back its four winds so that no wind would blow on land or sea or on any tree.
• Revelation 8:3–12 Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, rose up before God from the hand of t…
• Revelation 9:1–2 Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and it was given the key to the pit of the Abyss. The star opened the pit of the Abyss, and smoke rose out of it like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke fro…
• Revelation 9:17–19 Now the horses and riders in my vision looked like this: The riders had breastplates the colors of fire, sapphire, and sulfur. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire, smoke, and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire…
• Revelation 10:1–6 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun, and his legs were like pillars of fire. He held in his hand a small scroll, which lay open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. Then…
• Revelation 11:6 These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.
• Revelation 12:1–4 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and crying out in the pain and agony of giving birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seve…
• Revelation 12:7–9 Then a war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But the dragon was not strong enough, and no longer was any place found in heaven for him and his angels. And the great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called t…
• Revelation 14 Then I looked and saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of many waters and the loud rumbling of thunder. And the sound I heard was like harpists strumming their harps. (whole chapter)