42:15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; 1
I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn streams into islands, 2
and dry up pools of water. 3
43:16 This is what the Lord says,
the one who made a road through the sea,
a pathway through the surging waters,
51:10 Did you not dry up the sea,
the waters of the great deep?
Did you not make 4 a path through the depths of the sea,
so those delivered from bondage 5 could cross over?
63:13 who led them through the deep water?
Like a horse running on flat land 6 they did not stumble.
107:33 He turned 12 streams into a desert,
springs of water into arid land,
114:3 The sea looked and fled; 13
the Jordan River 14 turned back. 15
114:4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs. 16
114:5 Why do you flee, O sea?
Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?
114:6 Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,
like lambs, O hills?
114:7 Tremble, O earth, before the Lord –
before the God of Jacob,
1 tn Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”
2 tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).
3 sn The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.
4 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made…?”
5 tn Heb “the redeemed” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV “the ransomed.”
6 tn Heb “in the desert [or “steppe”].”
7 tn Or “drove the sea back” (NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV). The verb is simply the Hiphil of הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk, go”). The context requires that it be interpreted along the lines of “go back, go apart.”
8 tn Heb “the waters descending from above stood still.”
9 tn Heb “they stood in one pile very far away.”
10 tn Heb “the [waters] descending toward the sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) were completely cut off.”
11 map For the location of Jericho see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
12 tn The verbal form appears to be a preterite, which is most naturally taken as narrational. (The use of prefixed forms with vav [ו] consecutive in vv. 36-37 favor this.) The psalmist may return to the theme of God’s intervention for the exiles (see vv. 4-22, especially vv. 4-9). However, many regard vv. 33-41 as a hymnic description which generalizes about God’s activities among men. In this case it would be preferable to use the English present tense throughout (cf. NEB, NRSV).
13 sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
14 tn Heb “the Jordan” (also in v. 5). The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
15 sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Jordan River (Josh 3:13, 16).
16 sn The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. This may recall the theophany at Sinai when the mountain shook before God’s presence (Exod 19:18).