After pausing in verse 11 to build again the picture through intensification, the poet resumes the progression of events. Whatever difficulties we may have with the mixture of hailstones and coals of fire, there is clearly a sequence, in that these elements are displayed subsequent to the brightness. Good News Translation‘s rendering makes the sequence clear.

There is some uncertainty about the meaning of this verse, which is literally “from the brightness before him his clouds passed through, hailstones and coals of fire.” Good News Translation has tried to draw a consistent picture by keeping “the dark clouds” as Yahweh’s “covering” through which come “Hailstones and flashes of fire.” The second item is particularly puzzling, since coals of fire are not associated with a thunderstorm; Bible en français courant and Good News Translation “flashes of fire” takes it to refer to darts of lightning (so Dahood), and takes the brightness to mean “lightning.” Briggs takes the Hebrew “from brightness” to mean “without brightness,” that is, darkness, and connects this with the last two words of the preceding verse: “thick clouds of the skies without brightness.” Another possible translation is “At the brightness before him the clouds rolled away; there were hailstones and blazing coals.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “A dazzling light issued from his presence; hailstones and blazing coals erupted from the clouds.” The picture is not consistent, and there may be a mixture of images of a thunderstorm and of a volcano in eruption. It may be best to follow Good News Translation.

If the translator follows the imagery found in Good News Translation, it may be necessary to recast the sentence so that the lightning is the agent; for example, “The lightning before him threw out hailstones and flashes of fire, which came down through the dark clouds.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .