Psalms 18:11

18:11 He shrouded himself in darkness, ¹ 

in thick rain clouds. ² 

Psalms 77:17

77:17 The clouds poured down rain; ³ 

the skies thundered. ⁴ 

Yes, your arrows ⁵  flashed about.

Psalms 104:3

104:3 and lays the beams of the upper rooms of his palace on the rain clouds. ⁶ 

He makes the clouds his chariot,

and travels along on the wings of the wind. ⁷ 

Psalms 147:8

147:8 He covers ⁸  the sky with clouds,

provides the earth with rain,

and causes grass to grow on the hillsides. ⁹ 

[18:11]  ¹ tc Heb “he made darkness his hiding place around him, his covering.” 2 Sam 22:12 reads, “he made darkness around him coverings,” omitting “his hiding place” and pluralizing “covering.” Ps 18:11 may include a conflation of synonyms (“his hiding place” and “his covering”) or 2 Sam 22:12 may be the result of haplography/homoioarcton. Note that three successive words in Ps 18:11 begin with the Hebrew letter samek: סִתְרוֹ סְבִיבוֹתָיו סֻכָּתוֹ (sitro sÿvivotayv sukkato).

[18:11]  ² tc Heb “darkness of water, clouds of clouds.” The noun “darkness” (חֶשְׁכַת, kheshkhat) is probably a corruption of an original reading חשׁרת, a form that is preserved in 2 Sam 22:12. The latter is a construct form of חַשְׁרָה (khashrah, “sieve”) which occurs only here in the OT. A cognate Ugaritic noun means “sieve,” and a related verb חָשַׁר (khashar, “to sift”) is attested in postbiblical Hebrew and Aramaic. The phrase חַשְׁרַת מַיִם (khashrat mayim) means literally “a sieve of water.” It pictures the rain clouds as a sieve through which the rain falls to the ground (see F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry [SBLDS], 146, n. 33).

[77:17]  ³ tn Heb “water.”

[77:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “a sound the clouds gave.”

[77:17]  ⁵ tn The lightning accompanying the storm is portrayed as the Lord’s “arrows” (see v. 18).

[104:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “one who lays the beams on water [in] his upper rooms.” The “water” mentioned here corresponds to the “waters above” mentioned in Gen 1:7. For a discussion of the picture envisioned by the psalmist, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 44-45.

[104:3]  ⁶ sn Verse 3 may depict the Lord riding a cherub, which is in turn propelled by the wind current. Another option is that the wind is personified as a cherub. See Ps 18:10 and the discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels to the imagery in M. Weinfeld, “‘Rider of the Clouds’ and ‘Gatherer of the Clouds’,” JANESCU 5 (1973): 422-24.

[147:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “the one who covers.”

[147:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “hills.”