Psalms 36:6

36:6 Your justice is like the highest mountains, ¹ 

your fairness like the deepest sea;

you preserve ²  mankind and the animal kingdom. ³ 

Colossians 1:17

1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together ⁴  in him.

Hebrews 1:3

1:3 The Son is ⁵  the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, ⁶  and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. ⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “mountains of God.” The divine name אֵל (’el, “God”) is here used in an idiomatic manner to indicate the superlative.

² tn Or “deliver.”

³ sn God’s justice/fairness is firm and reliable like the highest mountains and as abundant as the water in the deepest sea. The psalmist uses a legal metaphor to describe God’s preservation of his creation. Like a just judge who vindicates the innocent, God protects his creation from destructive forces.

⁴ tn BDAG 973 s.v. συνίστημι B.3 suggests “continue, endure, exist, hold together” here.

⁵ tn Grk “who being…and sustaining.” Heb 1:1-4 form one skillfully composed sentence in Greek, but it must be broken into shorter segments to correspond to contemporary English usage, which does not allow for sentences of this length and complexity.

⁶ tn Grk “by the word of his power.”

⁷ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1, quoted often in Hebrews.