Psalms 104:8

104:8 as the mountains rose up,

and the valleys went down –

to the place you appointed for them. ¹ 

Psalms 104:10

104:10 He turns springs into streams; ² 

they flow between the mountains.

Psalms 65:13

65:13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,

and the valleys are covered with grain.

They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.

Psalms 110:6

110:6 He executes judgment ³  against ⁴  the nations;

he fills the valleys with corpses; ⁵ 

he shatters their heads over the vast battlefield. ⁶ 

Psalms 74:15

74:15 You broke open the spring and the stream; ⁷ 

you dried up perpetually flowing rivers. ⁸ 

Psalms 18:15

18:15 The depths ⁹  of the sea ¹⁰  were exposed;

the inner regions ¹¹  of the world were uncovered

by ¹²  your battle cry, ¹³  Lord,

by the powerful breath from your nose. ¹⁴ 

[104:8]  ¹ tn Heb “from your shout they fled, from the sound of your thunder they hurried off.”

[104:10]  ² tn Heb “[the] one who sends springs into streams.” Another option is to translate, “he sends streams [i.e., streams that originate from springs] into the valleys” (cf. NIV).

[110:6]  ³ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 6-7 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing, though they could be taken as future.

[110:6]  ⁴ tn Or “among.”

[110:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “he fills [with] corpses,” but one expects a double accusative here. The translation assumes an emendation to גְוִיּוֹת גֵאָיוֹת(בִּ) מִלֵּא or מִלֵּא גֵאָיוֹת גְּוִיוֹת (for a similar construction see Ezek 32:5). In the former case גֵאָיוֹת(ge’ayot) has accidentally dropped from the text due to homoioteleuton; in the latter case it has dropped out due to homoioarcton.

[110:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “he strikes [the verb is מָחַץ (makhats), translated “strikes down” in v. 5] head[s] over a great land.” The Hebrew term רַבָּה (rabbah, “great”) is here used of distance or spatial measurement (see 1 Sam 26:13).

[74:15]  ⁴ sn You broke open the spring and the stream. Perhaps this alludes to the way in which God provided water for the Israelites as they traveled in the wilderness following the exodus (see Ps 78:15-16, 20; 105:41).

[74:15]  ⁵ sn Perpetually flowing rivers are rivers that contain water year round, unlike the seasonal streams that flow only during the rainy season. Perhaps the psalmist here alludes to the drying up of the Jordan River when the Israelites entered the land of Canaan under Joshua (see Josh 3-4).

[18:15]  ⁵ tn Or “channels.”

[18:15]  ⁶ tc Ps 18:15 reads “water” (cf. Ps 42:1); “sea” is the reading of 2 Sam 22:16.

[18:15]  ⁷ tn Or “foundations.”

[18:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “from.” The preposition has a causal sense here.

[18:15]  ⁹ tn The noun is derived from the verb גָּעַר (ga’ar), which is often understood to mean “rebuke.” In some cases it is apparent that scolding or threatening is in view (see Gen 37:10; Ruth 2:16; Zech 3:2). However, in militaristic contexts this translation is inadequate, for the verb refers in this setting to the warrior’s battle cry, which terrifies and paralyzes the enemy. See A. Caquot, TDOT 3:53, and note the use of the verb in Pss 68:30; 106:9; and Nah 1:4, as well as the related noun in Job 26:11; Pss 9:5; 76:6; 104:7; Isa 50:2; 51:20; 66:15.

[18:15]  ¹⁰ tn 2 Sam 22:16 reads “by the battle cry of the Lord, by the blast of the breath of his nose.” The phrase “blast of the breath” (Heb “breath of breath”) employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.