Exodus 19:19

When the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, ¹  Moses was speaking ²  and God was answering him with a voice. ³ 

and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.

As the horn blast grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply for all to hear.

The trumpet blasts grew louder and louder. Moses spoke and God answered in thunder.

And when the sound of the horn became louder and louder, Moses’ words were answered by the voice of God.

As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.

And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.

When the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, ¹  Moses was speaking ²  and God was answering him with a voice. ³ 

¹ tn The active participle הוֹלֵךְ (holekh) is used to add the idea of “continually” to the action of the sentence; here the trumpet became very loud – continually. See GKC 344 §113.u.

² tn The two verbs here (“spoke” and “answered”) are imperfect tenses; they emphasize repeated action but in past time. The customary imperfect usually is translated “would” or “used to” do the action, but here continuous action in past time is meant. S. R. Driver translates it “kept speaking” and “kept answering” (Exodus, 172).

³ tn The text simply has בְּקוֹל (bÿqol); it could mean “with a voice” or it could mean “in thunder” since “voice” was used in v. 16 for thunder. In this context it would be natural to say that the repeated thunderings were the voice of God – but how is that an answer? Deut 4:12 says that the people heard the sound of words. U. Cassuto (Exodus, 232-33) rightly comments, “He was answering him with a loud voice so that it was possible for Moses to hear His words clearly in the midst of the storm.” He then draws a parallel from Ugaritic where it tells that one of the gods was speaking in a loud voice.