Deuteronomy 4:34

4:34 Or has God ¹  ever before tried to deliver ²  a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, ³  signs, wonders, war, strength, power, ⁴  and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Psalms 65:5

65:5 You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance,

O God, our savior. ⁵ 

All the ends of the earth trust in you, ⁶ 

as well as those living across the wide seas. ⁷ 

Psalms 66:3-7

66:3 Say to God:

“How awesome are your deeds!

Because of your great power your enemies cower in fear ⁸  before you.

66:4 All the earth worships ⁹  you

and sings praises to you!

They sing praises to your name!” (Selah)

66:5 Come and witness ¹⁰  God’s exploits! ¹¹ 

His acts on behalf of people are awesome! ¹² 

66:6 He turned the sea into dry land; ¹³ 

they passed through the river on foot. ¹⁴ 

Let us rejoice in him there! ¹⁵ 

66:7 He rules ¹⁶  by his power forever;

he watches ¹⁷  the nations.

Stubborn rebels should not exalt ¹⁸  themselves. (Selah)

Psalms 114:3-8

114:3 The sea looked and fled; ¹⁹ 

the Jordan River ²⁰  turned back. ²¹ 

114:4 The mountains skipped like rams,

the hills like lambs. ²² 

114:5 Why do you flee, O sea?

Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?

114:6 Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,

like lambs, O hills?

114:7 Tremble, O earth, before the Lord –

before the God of Jacob,

114:8 who turned a rock into a pool of water,

a hard rock into springs of water! ²³ 

Isaiah 64:3

64:3 When you performed awesome deeds that took us by surprise, ²⁴ 

you came down, and the mountains trembled ²⁵  before you.

[4:34]  ¹ tn The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).

[4:34]  ² tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”

[4:34]  ³ tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).

[4:34]  ⁴ tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”

[65:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “[with] awesome acts in deliverance you answer us, O God of our salvation.”

[65:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “a source of confidence [for] all the ends of the earth.”

[65:5]  ⁷ tc Heb “and [the] distant sea.” The plural adjective is problematic after the singular form “sea.” One could emend יָם (yam, “sea”) to יָמִים (yamim, “seas”), or emend the plural form רְחֹקִים (rÿkhoqim, “far”) to the singular רָחֹק (rakhoq). In this case the final mem (ם) could be treated as dittographic; note the mem on the beginning of the first word in v. 6.

[66:3]  ⁸ tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 81:15 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “be weak, powerless” (see also Ps 109:24).

[66:4]  ⁹ tn Or “bows down to.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 4 are taken (1) as imperfects expressing what is typical. Another option (2) is to interpret them as anticipatory (“all the earth will worship you”) or (3) take them as jussives, expressing a prayer or wish (“may all the earth worship you”).

[66:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “see.”

[66:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “acts” (see Ps 46:8).

[66:5]  ¹² tn Heb “awesome [is] an act toward the sons of man.” It is unclear how the prepositional phrase relates to what precedes. If collocated with “act,” it may mean “on behalf of” or “toward.” If taken with “awesome” (see 1 Chr 16:25; Pss 89:7; 96:4; Zeph 2:11), one might translate “his awesome acts are beyond human comprehension” or “his awesome acts are superior to anything men can do.”

[66:6]  ¹³ sn He turned the sea into dry land. The psalmist alludes to Israel’s crossing the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).

[66:6]  ¹⁴ tn Because of the reference to “the river,” some understand this as an allusion to Israel’s crossing the Jordan River. However, the Hebrew term נָהָר (nahad) does not always refer to a “river” in the technical sense; it can be used of sea currents (see Jonah 2:4). So this line may also refer to the Red Sea crossing (cf. NEB).

[66:6]  ¹⁵ tn 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.).

[66:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[the] one who rules.”

[66:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his eyes watch.” “Eyes” are an anthropomorphism, attributed to God here to emphasize his awareness of all that happens on earth.

[66:7]  ¹⁸ tn The verb form is jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al). The Kethib (consonantal text) has a Hiphil form of the verb, apparently to be understood in an exhibitive sense (“demonstrate stubborn rebellion”; see BDB 927 s.v. רוּם Hiph), while the Qere (marginal reading) has a Qal form, to be understood in an intransitive sense. The preposition -לְ (lamed) with pronominal suffix should be understood in a reflexive sense (“for themselves”) and indicates that the action is performed with the interest of the subject in mind.

[114:3]  ¹⁹ sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).

[114:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the Jordan” (also in v. 5). The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[114:3]  ²¹ sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Jordan River (Josh 3:13, 16).

[114:4]  ²² sn The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. This may recall the theophany at Sinai when the mountain shook before God’s presence (Exod 19:18).

[114:8]  ²³ sn In v. 8 the psalmist recalls the event(s) recorded in Exod 17:6 and/or Num 20:11 (see also Deut 8:15 and Ps 78:15-16, 20).

[64:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “[for which] we were not waiting.”

[64:3]  ²⁵ tn See the note at v. 1.