Psalms 32:6

32:6 For this reason every one of your faithful followers ¹  should pray to you

while there is a window of opportunity. ² 

Certainly ³  when the surging water ⁴  rises,

it will not reach them. ⁵ 

Psalms 88:17

88:17 They surround me like water all day long;

they join forces and encircle me. ⁶ 

Psalms 93:3-4

93:3 The waves ⁷  roar, O Lord,

the waves roar,

the waves roar and crash. ⁸ 

93:4 Above the sound of the surging water, ⁹ 

and the mighty waves of the sea,

the Lord sits enthroned in majesty. ¹⁰ 

Matthew 7:27

7:27 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed; it was utterly destroyed!” ¹¹ 

Luke 6:49

6:49 But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice ¹²  is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When ¹³  the river burst against that house, ¹⁴  it collapsed immediately, and was utterly destroyed!” ¹⁵ 

¹ tn A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד, khasid) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 18:25; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10).

² tn Heb “at a time of finding.” This may mean, “while there is time to ‘find’ [the Lord]” and seek his forgiveness (cf. NIV). Some emend the text by combining מְצֹא (mÿtso’, “finding”) with the following term רַק (raq, “only, surely”) and read either ר[וֹ]מָצ (matsor, “distress”; see Ps 31:22) or ק[וֹ]מָצ (matsoq, “hardship”; see Ps 119:143). In this case, one may translate “in a time of distress/hardship” (cf. NEB, NRSV).

³ tn The Hebrew term רַק (raq) occasionally has an asseverative force.

⁴ sn The surging water is here a metaphor for trouble that endangers one’s life.

⁵ tn Heb “him.” The translation uses the plural “them” to agree with the plural “every one of your faithful followers” in the first line of v. 6.

⁶ tn Heb “they encircle me together.”

⁷ 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).

⁸ tn Heb “the waves lift up, O Lord, the waves lift up their voice, the waves lift up their crashing.”

⁹ tn Heb “mighty waters.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “mighty on high [is] the Lord.”

¹¹ tn Grk “and great was its fall.”

¹² tn Grk “does not do [them].”

¹³ tn Grk “against which”; because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative clause was converted to a temporal clause in the translation and a new sentence started here.

¹⁴ tn Grk “it”; the referent (that house) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Grk “and its crash was great.”