Joshua 2:9-11

2:9 She said to the men, “I know the Lord is handing this land over to you.¹ We are absolutely terrified of you,² and all who live in the land are cringing before³ you.⁴ 2:10 For we heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you left Egypt and how you annihilated the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, on the other side of the Jordan.⁵ 2:11 When we heard the news we lost our courage and no one could even breathe for fear of you.⁶ For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below!

Exodus 15:14-15

15:14 The nations will hear⁷ and tremble;

anguish⁸ will seize⁹ the inhabitants of Philistia.

15:15 Then the chiefs of Edom will be terrified,¹⁰

trembling will seize¹¹ the leaders of Moab,

and the inhabitants of Canaan will shake.

Psalms 48:4-6

48:4 For¹² look, the kings assemble;¹³

they advance together.

48:5 As soon as they see,¹⁴ they are shocked;¹⁵

they are terrified, they quickly retreat.¹⁶

48:6 Look at them shake uncontrollably,¹⁷

like a woman writhing in childbirth.¹⁸

Revelation 18:10

18:10 They will stand a long way off because they are afraid of her torment, and will say,

“Woe, woe, O great city,

Babylon the powerful city!

For in a single hour your doom¹⁹ has come!”

¹tn Heb “has given the land to you.” Rahab’s statement uses the Hebrew perfect, suggesting certitude.

²tn Heb “terror of you has fallen upon us.”

³tn Or “melting away because of.”

⁴tn Both of these statements are actually subordinated to “I know” in the Hebrew text, which reads, “I know that the Lord…and that terror of you…and that all the inhabitants….”

⁵tn Heb “and what you did to the two Amorite kings who were beyond the Jordan, Sihon and Og, how you annihilated them.”

⁶tn Heb “And we heard and our heart[s] melted and there remained no longer breath in a man because of you.”

⁷tn This verb is a prophetic perfect, assuming that the text means what it said and this song was sung at the Sea. So all these countries were yet to hear of the victory.

⁸tn The word properly refers to “pangs” of childbirth. When the nations hear, they will be terrified.

⁹tn The verb is again a prophetic perfect.

¹⁰tn This is a prophetic perfect.

¹¹tn This verb is imperfect tense.

¹²tn The logical connection between vv. 3-4 seems to be this: God is the protector of Zion and reveals himself as the city’s defender – this is necessary because hostile armies threaten the city.

¹³tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 4-6 are understood as descriptive. In dramatic style (note הִנֵּה, hinneh, “look”) the psalm describes an enemy attack against the city as if it were occurring at this very moment. Another option is to take the perfects as narrational (“the kings assembled, they advanced”), referring to a particular historical event, such as Sennacherib’s siege of the city in 701 b.c. (cf. NIV, NRSV). Even if one translates the verses in a dramatic-descriptive manner (as the present translation does), the Lord’s victory over the Assyrians was probably what served as the inspiration of the description (see v. 8).

¹⁴tn The object of “see” is omitted, but v. 3b suggests that the Lord’s self-revelation as the city’s defender is what they see.

¹⁵tn Heb “they look, so they are shocked.” Here כֵּן (ken, “so”) has the force of “in the same measure.”

¹⁶tn The translation attempts to reflect the staccato style of the Hebrew text, where the main clauses of vv. 4-6 are simply juxtaposed without connectives.

¹⁷tn Heb “trembling seizes them there.” The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here, as often in poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027 s.v.).

¹⁸tn Heb “[with] writhing like one giving birth.”

¹⁹tn Or “judgment,” condemnation,” “punishment.” BDAG 569 s.v. κρίσις 1.a.β states, “The word oft. means judgment that goes against a person, condemnation, and the sentence that follows…ἡ κ. σου your judgment Rv 18:10.”