Job 38:11

38:11 when I said, ‘To here you may come ¹ 

and no farther, ² 

here your proud waves will be confined’? ³ 

Psalms 93:3-4

93:3 The waves ⁴  roar, O Lord,

the waves roar,

the waves roar and crash. ⁵ 

93:4 Above the sound of the surging water, ⁶ 

and the mighty waves of the sea,

the Lord sits enthroned in majesty. ⁷ 

Matthew 14:25-30

14:25 As the night was ending, ⁸  Jesus came to them walking on the sea. ⁹  14:26 When ¹⁰  the disciples saw him walking on the water ¹¹  they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out with fear. 14:27 But immediately Jesus ¹²  spoke to them: ¹³  “Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.” 14:28 Peter ¹⁴  said to him, ¹⁵  “Lord, if it is you, order me to come to you on the water.” 14:29 So he said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. 14:30 But when he saw the strong wind he became afraid. And starting to sink, he cried out, ¹⁶  “Lord, save me!”

John 6:19

6:19 Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, ¹⁷  they caught sight of Jesus walking on the lake, ¹⁸  approaching the boat, and they were frightened.

¹ tn The imperfect verb receives the permission nuance here.

² tn The text has תֹסִיף (tosif, “and you may not add”), which is often used idiomatically (as in verbal hendiadys constructions).

³ tn The MT literally says, “here he will put on the pride of your waves.” The verb has no expressed subject and so is made a passive voice. But there has to be some object for the verb “put,” such as “limit” or “boundary”; the translations “confined; halted; stopped” all serve to paraphrase such an idea. The LXX has “broken” at this point, suggesting the verse might have been confused – but “breaking the pride” of the waves would mean controlling them. Some commentators have followed this, exchanging the verb in v. 11 with this one.

⁴ tn The Hebrew noun translated “waves” often refers to rivers or streams, but here it appears to refer to the surging waves of the sea (see v. 4, Ps 24:2).

⁵ tn Heb “the waves lift up, O Lord, the waves lift up their voice, the waves lift up their crashing.”

⁶ tn Heb “mighty waters.”

⁷ tn Heb “mighty on high [is] the Lord.”

⁸ tn Grk “In the fourth watch of the night,” that is, between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.

⁹ tn Or “on the lake.”

¹⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹¹ tn Grk “on the sea”; or “on the lake.” The translation “water” has been used here for stylistic reasons (cf. the same phrase in v. 25).

¹² tc Most witnesses have ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς (Jo Ihsous, “Jesus”), while a few lack the words (א* D 073 892 pc ff¹ sy^c sa bo). Although such additions are often suspect (due to liturgical influences, piety, or for the sake of clarity), in this case it is likely that ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς dropped out accidentally. Apart from a few albeit important witnesses, as noted above, the rest of the tradition has either ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς αὐτοῖς (Jo Ihsous autois) or αὐτοῖς ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς (autois Jo Ihsous). In uncial letters, with Jesus’ name as a nomen sacrum, this would have been written as autoisois_ or ois_autois. Thus homoioteleuton could explain the reason for the omission of Jesus’ name.

¹³ tn Grk “he said to them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has not been translated.

¹⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹⁵ tn Grk “answering him, Peter said.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant and has not been translated.

¹⁶ tn Grk “he cried out, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has not been translated.

¹⁷ tn Grk “about twenty-five or thirty stades” (a stade as a unit of linear measure is about 607 feet or 187 meters).

¹⁸ tn Or “sea.” See the note on “lake” in v. 16. John uses the phrase ἐπί (epi, “on”) followed by the genitive (as in Mark, instead of Matthew’s ἐπί followed by the accusative) to describe Jesus walking “on the lake.”