Psalms 42:7

42:7 One deep stream calls out to another ¹  at the sound of your waterfalls; ² 

all your billows and waves overwhelm me. ³ 

Psalms 69:1-2

Psalm 69 ⁴ 

For the music director; according to the tune of “Lilies;” ⁵  by David.

69:1 Deliver me, O God,

for the water has reached my neck. ⁶ 

69:2 I sink into the deep mire

where there is no solid ground; ⁷ 

I am in ⁸  deep water,

and the current overpowers me.

Psalms 124:4

124:4 The water would have overpowered us;

the current ⁹  would have overwhelmed ¹⁰  us. ¹¹ 

Lamentations 3:54

3:54 The waters closed over my head;

I thought ¹²  I was about to die. ¹³ 

Jonah 2:3

2:3 You threw me ¹⁴  into the deep waters, ¹⁵ 

into the middle ¹⁶  of the sea; ¹⁷ 

the ocean current ¹⁸  engulfed ¹⁹  me;

all the mighty waves ²⁰  you sent ²¹  swept ²²  over me. ²³ 

[42:7]  ¹ tn Heb “deep calls to deep.” The Hebrew noun תְּהוֹם (tÿhom) often refers to the deep sea, but here, where it is associated with Hermon, it probably refers to mountain streams. The word can be used of streams and rivers (see Deut 8:7; Ezek 31:4).

[42:7]  ² tn The noun צִנּוֹר (tsinnor, “waterfall”) occurs only here and in 2 Sam 5:8, where it apparently refers to a water shaft. The psalmist alludes to the loud rushing sound of mountain streams and cascading waterfalls. Using the poetic device of personification, he imagines the streams calling out to each other as they hear the sound of the waterfalls.

[42:7]  ³ tn Heb “pass over me” (see Jonah 2:3). As he hears the sound of the rushing water, the psalmist imagines himself engulfed in the current. By implication he likens his emotional distress to such an experience.

[69:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 69. The psalmist laments his oppressed condition and asks the Lord to deliver him by severely judging his enemies.

[69:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “according to lilies.” See the superscription to Ps 45.

[69:1]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term נפשׁ (nefesh) here refers to the psalmist’s throat or neck. The psalmist compares himself to a helpless, drowning man.

[69:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and there is no place to stand.”

[69:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “have entered.”

[124:4]  ⁹ tn Or “stream.”

[124:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “would have passed over.”

[124:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “our being.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[3:54]  ¹² tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”

[3:54]  ¹³ tn Heb “I was about to be cut off.” The verb נִגְזָרְתִּי (nigzarti), Niphal perfect 1st person common singular from גָּזַר (gazar, “to be cut off”), functions in an ingressive sense: “about to be cut off.” It is used in reference to the threat of death (e.g., Ezek 37:11). To be “cut off” from the hand of the living means to experience death (Ps 88:6).

[2:3]  ¹⁴ tn Or “You had thrown me.” Verse 3 begins the detailed description of Jonah’s plight, which resulted from being thrown into the sea.

[2:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the deep” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “into the ocean depths.”

[2:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “heart” (so many English versions); CEV “to the (+ very TEV) bottom of the sea.”

[2:3]  ¹⁷ tc The BHS editors suggest deleting either מְצוּלָה (mÿtsulah, “into the deep”) or בִּלְבַב יַמִּים (bilvav yammim, “into the heart of the sea”). They propose that one or the other is a scribal gloss on the remaining term. However, the use of an appositional phrase within a poetic colon is not unprecedented in Hebrew poetry. The MT is therefore best retained.

[2:3]  ¹⁸ tn Or “the stream”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “the flood.” The Hebrew word נָהָר (nahar) is used in parallel with יַם (yam, “sea”) in Ps 24:2 (both are plural) to describe the oceans of the world and in Ps 66:6 to speak of the sea crossed by Israel in the exodus from Egypt.

[2:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “surrounded” (so NRSV); NAB “enveloped.”

[2:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “your breakers and your waves.” This phrase is a nominal hendiadys; the first noun functions as an attributive adjective modifying the second noun: “your breaking waves.”

[2:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “your… your…” The 2nd person masculine singular suffixes on מִשְׁבָּרֶיךָ וְגַלֶּיךָ (mishbarekha vÿgallekha, “your breakers and your waves”) function as genitives of source. Just as God had hurled a violent wind upon the sea (1:4) and had sovereignly sent the large fish to swallow him (1:17 [2:1 HT]), Jonah viewed God as sovereignly responsible for afflicting him with sea waves that were crashing upon his head, threatening to drown him. Tg. Jonah 2:3 alters the 2nd person masculine singular suffixes to 3rd person masculine singular suffixes to make them refer to the sea and not to God, for the sake of smoothness: “all the gales of the sea and its billows.”

[2:3]  ²² tn Heb “crossed”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “passed.”

[2:3]  ²³ sn Verses 3 and 5 multiply terms describing Jonah’s watery plight. The images used in v. 3 appear also in 2 Sam 22:5-6; Pss 42:7; 51:11; 69:1-2, 14-15; 88:6-7; 102:10.