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 

Genesis 7:17-23

7:17 The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth. 7:18 The waters completely overwhelmed ⁶  the earth, and the ark floated ⁷  on the surface of the waters. 7:19 The waters completely inundated ⁸  the earth so that even ⁹  all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered. 7:20 The waters rose more than twenty feet ¹⁰  above the mountains. ¹¹  7:21 And all living things ¹²  that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind. 7:22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life ¹³  in its nostrils died. 7:23 So the Lord ¹⁴  destroyed ¹⁵  every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky. ¹⁶  They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived. ¹⁷ 

Matthew 7:25

7:25 The rain fell, the flood ¹⁸  came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock.

Matthew 26:37-38

26:37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and became anguished and distressed. 26:38 Then he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.”

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 “and the waters were great and multiplied exceedingly.” The first verb in the sequence is וַיִּגְבְּרוּ (vayyigbÿru, from גָּבַר, gavar), meaning “to become great, mighty.” The waters did not merely rise; they “prevailed” over the earth, overwhelming it.

⁷ tn Heb “went.”

⁸ tn Heb “and the waters were great exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition emphasizes the depth of the waters.

⁹ tn Heb “and.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “rose fifteen cubits.” Since a cubit is considered by most authorities to be about eighteen inches, this would make the depth 22.5 feet. This figure might give the modern reader a false impression of exactness, however, so in the translation the phrase “fifteen cubits” has been rendered “more than twenty feet.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward and they covered the mountains.” Obviously, a flood of twenty feet did not cover the mountains; the statement must mean the flood rose about twenty feet above the highest mountain.

¹² tn Heb “flesh.”

¹³ tn Heb “everything which [has] the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils from all which is in the dry land.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Heb “wiped away” (cf. NRSV “blotted out”).

¹⁶ tn Heb “from man to animal to creeping thing and to the bird of the sky.”

¹⁷ tn The Hebrew verb שָׁאָר (sha’ar) means “to be left over; to survive” in the Niphal verb stem. It is the word used in later biblical texts for the remnant that escapes judgment. See G. F. Hasel, “Semantic Values of Derivatives of the Hebrew Root só’r,” AUSS 11 (1973): 152-69.

¹⁸ tn Grk “the rivers.”