God thunders wondrously with his voice is changed by some scholars on the basis that thunders has been repeated too often, but it may be best to allow Elihu to use his own repetitious style. Wondrously describes the reaction of the ones who hear it. Therefore it may be best to translate, for example, “God makes thunder with his voice, and it is amazing to hear it” or “When God speaks, it sounds like thunder, and it is an awesome noise to hear.”

He does great things which we cannot comprehend: this line is a general statement, whereas the previous line is specific. This is the reverse of typical parallelism. Hebrew poetic style prefers the general statement to be given first. In actual fact Good News Translation‘s rendering of these lines thoroughly mixes the segments of the two lines rather than transposing the lines. There is no reference to thunder nor to voice, and so on the whole Good News Translation‘s translation is not recommended. It is probably best to understand line b, not as a parallel to line a, but rather as a transition to the following verses, which go on to speak of God’s ways of working in nature other than through thunder and lightning. Revised Standard Version can serve as a model for translating this line.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .