82:5 They 1 neither know nor understand.
They stumble 2 around in the dark,
while all the foundations of the earth crumble. 3
4:24 I looked at the mountains and saw that they were shaking.
All the hills were swaying back and forth!
5:22 “You should fear me!” says the Lord.
“You should tremble in awe before me! 4
I made the sand to be a boundary for the sea,
a permanent barrier that it can never cross.
Its waves may roll, but they can never prevail.
They may roar, but they can never cross beyond that boundary.” 5
49:21 The people of the earth will quake when they hear of their downfall. 6
Their cries of anguish will be heard all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba. 7
50:46 The people of the earth will quake when they hear Babylon has been captured.
Her cries of anguish will be heard by the other nations.” 8
20:11 Then 12 I saw a large 13 white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven 14 fled 15 from his presence, and no place was found for them.
1 sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.
2 tn Heb “walk.” The Hitpael stem indicates iterative action, picturing these ignorant “judges” as stumbling around in the darkness.
3 sn These gods, though responsible for justice, neglect their duty. Their self-imposed ignorance (which the psalmist compares to stumbling around in the dark) results in widespread injustice, which threatens the social order of the world (the meaning of the phrase all the foundations of the earth crumble).
4 tn Heb “Should you not fear me? Should you not tremble in awe before me?” The rhetorical questions expect the answer explicit in the translation.
5 tn Heb “it.” The referent is made explicit to avoid any possible confusion.
6 tn Heb “The earth will quake when at the sound of their downfall.” However, as in many other places “earth” stands here metonymically for the inhabitants or people of the earth (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 578-79, and compare usage in 2 Sam 15:23; Ps 66:4).
7 tn Heb “the Red Sea,” of which the Gulf of Aqaba formed the northeastern arm. The land of Edom once reached this far according to 1 Kgs 9:26.
8 tn Heb “among the nations.” With the exception of this phrase, the different verb in v. 46a, the absence of a suffix on the word for “land” in v. 45d, the third plural suffix instead of the third singular suffix on the verb for “chase…off of,” this passage is identical with 49:19-21 with the replacement of Babylon or the land of the Chaldeans for Edom. For the translation notes explaining the details of the translation here see the translator’s notes on 49:19-21.
9 tn Or “The heavens were.” The Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) can mean either “heaven” or “sky.”
10 tn BDAG 125 s.v. ἀποχωρίζω states, “ὁ οὐρανὸς ἀπεχωρίσθη the sky was split Rv 6:14.” Although L&N 79.120 gives the meaning “the sky disappeared like a rolled-up scroll” here, a scroll that is rolled up does not “disappear,” and such a translation could be difficult for modern readers to understand.
11 tn On this term BDAG 317 s.v. ἑλίσσω states, “ὡς βιβλίον ἑλισσόμενον like a scroll that is rolled up…Rv 6:14.”
12 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
13 tn Traditionally, “great,” but μέγας (megas) here refers to size rather than importance.
14 tn Or “and the sky.” The same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky,” and context usually determines which is meant. In this apocalyptic scene, however, it is difficult to be sure what referent to assign the term.
15 tn Or “vanished.”