Psalms 65:7

65:7 You calm the raging seas ¹ 

and their roaring waves,

as well as the commotion made by the nations. ² 

Psalms 104:6-9

104:6 The watery deep covered it ³  like a garment;

the waters reached ⁴  above the mountains. ⁵ 

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. ⁶ 

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

so that they would not cover the earth again. ⁷ 

Psalms 107:25-29

107:25 He gave the order for a windstorm, ⁸ 

and it stirred up the waves of the sea. ⁹ 

107:26 They ¹⁰  reached up to the sky,

then dropped into the depths.

The sailors’ strength ¹¹  left them ¹²  because the danger was so great. ¹³ 

107:27 They swayed ¹⁴  and staggered like a drunk,

and all their skill proved ineffective. ¹⁵ 

107:28 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

107:29 He calmed the storm, ¹⁶ 

and the waves ¹⁷  grew silent.

Isaiah 50:2

50:2 Why does no one challenge me when I come?

Why does no one respond when I call? ¹⁸ 

Is my hand too weak ¹⁹  to deliver ²⁰  you?

Do I lack the power to rescue you?

Look, with a mere shout ²¹  I can dry up the sea;

I can turn streams into a desert,

so the fish rot away and die

from lack of water. ²² 

Jeremiah 5:22

5:22 “You should fear me!” says the Lord.

“You should tremble in awe before me! ²³ 

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.” ²⁴ 

Nahum 1:4

1:4 He shouts a battle cry ²⁵  against the sea ²⁶  and makes it dry up; ²⁷ 

he makes all the rivers ²⁸  run dry.

Bashan and Carmel wither; ²⁹ 

the blossom of Lebanon withers.

[65:7]  ¹ tn Heb “the roar of the seas.”

[65:7]  ² sn The raging seas…the commotion made by the nations. The raging seas symbolize the turbulent nations of the earth (see Ps 46:2-3, 6; Isa 17:12).

[104:6]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “stood.”

[104:6]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “from your shout they fled, from the sound of your thunder they hurried off.”

[104:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “a boundary you set up, they will not cross, they will not return to cover the earth.”

[107:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “he spoke and caused to stand a stormy wind.”

[107:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “and it stirred up its [i.e., the sea’s, see v. 23] waves.”

[107:26]  ¹⁰ tn That is, the waves (see v. 25).

[107:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “their being”; traditionally “their soul” (referring to that of the sailors). This is sometimes translated “courage” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[107:26]  ¹² tn Or “melted.”

[107:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “from danger.”

[107:27]  ¹⁴ tn Only here does the Hebrew verb חָגַג (khagag; normally meaning “to celebrate”) carry the nuance “to sway.”

[107:27]  ¹⁵ tn The Hitpael of בָלַע (vala’) occurs only here in the OT. Traditionally the form is derived from the verbal root בלע (“to swallow”), but HALOT 135 s.v. III בלע understands a homonym here with the meaning “to be confused.”

[107:29]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he raised [the] storm to calm.”

[107:29]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “their waves.” The antecedent of the third masculine plural pronominal suffix is not readily apparent, unless it refers back to “waters” in v. 23.

[50:2]  ¹⁸ sn The present tense translation of the verbs assumes that the Lord is questioning why Israel does not attempt to counter his arguments. Another possibility is to take the verbs as referring to past events: “Why did no one meet me when I came? Why did no one answer when I called?” In this case the Lord might be asking why Israel rejected his calls to repent and his offer to deliver them.

[50:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV).

[50:2]  ²⁰ tn Or “ransom” (NAB, NASB, NIV).

[50:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “with my rebuke.”

[50:2]  ²² tn Heb “the fish stink from lack of water and die from thirst.”

[5:22]  ²³ 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.

[5:22]  ²⁴ tn Heb “it.” The referent is made explicit to avoid any possible confusion.

[1:4]  ²⁵ tn The term גָּעַר (ga’ar) often denotes “reprimand” and “rebuke” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). When it is used in the context of a military attack, it denotes an angry battle cry shouted by a mighty warrior to strike fear into his enemies to drive them away (e.g., 2 Sam 23:16; Isa 30:17; Pss 18:15; 76:6; 80:17; 104:7). For example, the parallel Ugaritic term is used when Baal utters a battle cry against Yamm before they fight to the death. For further study see, A. A. MacIntosh, “A Consideration of Hebrew g`r,” VT 14 (1969): 474; P. J. van Zijl, “A Consideration of the root ga’ar (“rebuke”),” OTWSA 12 (1969): 56-63; A. Caquot, TDOT 3:49-53.

[1:4]  ²⁶ sn The “sea” is personified as an antagonistic enemy, representing the wicked forces of chaos (Pss 66:6; 72:8; 80:12; 89:26; 93:3-4; Isa 50:2; Mic 7:12; Hab 3:8; Zech 9:10).

[1:4]  ²⁷ tn This somewhat unusual use of the preterite (וַיַּבְּשֵׁהוּ, vayyabbÿshehu) follows a participle which depicts characteristic (present-time) action or imminent future action; the preterite depicts the subsequent present or future-time action (see IBHS 561-62 §33.3.5).

[1:4]  ²⁸ sn The Assyrians waged war every spring after the Tigris and Euphrates rivers dried up, allowing them to cross. As the Mighty Warrior par excellence, the Lord is able to part the rivers to attack Assyria.

[1:4]  ²⁹ tn The term אֻמְלַל (’umlal, “withers”) occurs twice in this verse in MT. The repetition of אֻמְלַל is also supported by the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QpNah). The BHS editors suggest emending the first occurrence of אֻמְלַל (“withers”) to דָּלְלוּ (dollu, “languishes”) to recover the letter ד (dalet) in the partial acrostic. Several versions do, in fact, employ two different verbs in the line (LXX, Syr, Targum, and Vg). However, the first verb at the beginning of the line in all of the versions reflects a reading of אֻמְלַל. Although several elements of an acrostic are present in Nahum 1, the acrostic is incomplete (only א [alef] to כ [kaf] in vv. 2-8) and broken (several elements are missing within vv. 2-8). There is no textual evidence for a complete, unbroken acrostic throughout the book of Nahum in any ancient Hebrew mss or other textual versions; it is most prudent simply to leave the MT as it stands.