thunder” (14:2); “I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals” (19:6). Not all sounds are ear-piercing, nor are all voices boisterous. Some are laments of weeping and wailing (18:9–10, 11, 15, 19), while other sounds are conspicuous by their absence. At the opening of the seventh seal there is silence in heaven for half an hour (8:1). And at Babylon’s fall the familiar sounds of commerce and joy are silenced: the
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