רַעְמָה

From the study of Job 39:19

Range of meaning

This exact noun with this meaning occurs only here (the name Raamah in Gen 10:7 is a separate word). It is built on the root ra'am, whose noun ra'am means 'thunder' (Job 26:14; Ps 77:18). The verb can mean 'to thunder, roar' (1 Sam 2:10; Ps 96:11, 'let the sea roar'), and in Ezek 27:35 it describes faces that shudder or are convulsed with fear. So the root covers rumbling, quaking and trembling. A ra'mah worn on the neck is best understood as 'the quivering thing': the mane rippling and shaking as the horse moves.

Against the English

KJV 'thunder' follows the root's best-known sense. BSB, YLT, ESV and NASB give 'mane'. WEB has 'quivering mane' and NIV/NLT 'flowing mane', each adding a word to carry the motion in the root.

How it drifted

Not drift in English so much as a rare word guessed in different ways. The King James translators, like the Greek and Latin translators before them, took the word from its root's sound sense. Later Hebrew lexicons, starting from the 'tremble' sense and from the parallel with 'neck' and 'clothe', settled on 'mane'.

Used elsewhere in the period

The ancient translators were unsure. The Greek Septuagint renders it 'fear/terror' (phobos), apparently from the 'quaking' sense. The Latin Vulgate has hinnitum, 'neighing', from the sound sense. BDB gives 'quivering mane' (lit. vibration); HALOT gives 'mane'.