Job 12:15

12:15 If he holds back the waters, then they dry up; ¹ 

if he releases them, ²  they destroy ³  the land.

Psalms 46:2-3

46:2 For this reason we do not fear ⁴  when the earth shakes, ⁵ 

and the mountains tumble into the depths of the sea, ⁶ 

46:3 when its waves ⁷  crash ⁸  and foam,

and the mountains shake ⁹  before the surging sea. ¹⁰  (Selah)

Psalms 104:6-9

104:6 The watery deep covered it ¹¹  like a garment;

the waters reached ¹²  above the mountains. ¹³ 

104:7 Your shout made the waters retreat;

at the sound of your thunderous voice they hurried off –

104:8 as the mountains rose up,

and the valleys went down –

to the place you appointed for them. ¹⁴ 

104:9 You set up a boundary for them that they could not cross,

so that they would not cover the earth again. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 3:23

3:23 We know our noisy worship of false gods

on the hills and mountains did not help us. ¹⁶ 

We know that the Lord our God

is the only one who can deliver Israel. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 3:2

3:2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ¹⁸ 

You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ¹⁹ 

You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ²⁰ 

You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 3:6

3:6 When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. ²²  You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods. ²³ 

[12:15]  ¹ tc The LXX has a clarification: “he will dry the earth.”

[12:15]  ² sn The verse is focusing on the two extremes of drought and flood. Both are described as being under the power of God.

[12:15]  ³ tn The verb הָפַךְ (hafakh) means “to overthrow; to destroy; to overwhelm.” It was used in Job 9:5 for “overturning” mountains. The word is used in Genesis for the destruction of Sodom.

[46:2]  ⁴ tn The imperfect is taken in a generalizing sense (cf. NEB) because the situation described in vv. 2-3 is understood as symbolizing typical world conditions. In this case the imperfect draws attention to the typical nature of the response. The covenant community characteristically responds with confidence, not fear. Another option is to take the situation described as purely hypothetical. In this case one might translate, “We will not fear, even though the earth should shake” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[46:2]  ⁵ tn The Hiphil infinitival form is normally taken to mean “when [the earth] is altered,” being derived from מוּר (mur, “to change”). In this case the Hiphil would be intransitive, as in Ps 15:4. HALOT 560 s.v. II מור emends the form to a Niphal and derives it from a homonymic root מוּר attested in Arabic with the meaning “shake.”

[46:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “heart of the seas.” The plural may be used for emphasis, pointing to the deepest sea. Note that the next verse uses a singular pronoun (“its waters,” “its swelling”) in referring back to the plural noun.

[46:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “its waters.”

[46:3]  ⁸ tn Or “roar.”

[46:3]  ⁹ tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 3 draw attention to the characteristic nature of the activity described.

[46:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “at its swelling.” The Hebrew word often means “pride.” If the sea is symbolic of hostile nations, then this may be a case of double entendre. The surging, swelling sea symbolizes the proud, hostile nations. On the surface the psalmist appears to be depicting a major natural catastrophe, perhaps a tidal wave. If so, then the situation would be hypothetical. However, the repetition of the verbs הָמָה (hamah, “crash; roar,” v. 3) and מוֹט (mot, “shake,” v. 2) in v. 6, where nations/kingdoms “roar” and “shake,” suggests that the language of vv. 2-3 is symbolic and depicts the upheaval that characterizes relationships between the nations of the earth. As some nations (symbolized by the surging, chaotic waters) show hostility, others (symbolized by the mountains) come crashing down to destruction. The surging waters are symbolic of chaotic forces in other poetic texts (see, for example, Isa 17:12; Jer 51:42) and mountains can symbolize strong kingdoms (see, for example, Jer 51:25).

[104:6]  ¹¹ tc Heb “you covered it.” The masculine suffix is problematic if the grammatically feminine noun “earth” is the antecedent. For this reason some emend the form to a feminine verb with feminine suffix, כִּסַּתָּה (kisattah, “[the watery deep] covered it [i.e., the earth]”), a reading assumed by the present translation.

[104:6]  ¹² tn Heb “stood.”

[104:6]  ¹³ sn Verse 6 refers to the condition described in Gen 1:2 (note the use of the Hebrew term תְּהוֹם [tÿhom, “watery deep”] in both texts).

[104:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “from your shout they fled, from the sound of your thunder they hurried off.”

[104:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a boundary you set up, they will not cross, they will not return to cover the earth.”

[3:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Truly in vain from the hills the noise/commotion [and from] the mountains.” The syntax of the Hebrew sentence is very elliptical here.

[3:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Truly in the Lord our God is deliverance for Israel.”

[3:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and see.”

[3:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Where have you not been ravished?” The rhetorical question expects the answer “nowhere,” which suggests she has engaged in the worship of pagan gods on every one of the hilltops.

[3:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “You sat for them [the lovers, i.e., the foreign gods] beside the road like an Arab in the desert.”

[3:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “by your prostitution and your wickedness.” This is probably an example of hendiadys where, when two nouns are joined by “and,” one expresses the main idea and the other qualifies it.

[3:6]  ²² tn “Have you seen…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[3:6]  ²³ tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.