Psalms 33:7

33:7 He piles up the water of the sea; ¹ 

he puts the oceans ²  in storehouses.

Psalms 42:7

42:7 One deep stream calls out to another ³  at the sound of your waterfalls; ⁴ 

all your billows and waves overwhelm me. ⁵ 

Psalms 78:15

78:15 He broke open rocks in the wilderness,

and gave them enough water to fill the depths of the sea. ⁶ 

Psalms 93:4

93:4 Above the sound of the surging water, ⁷ 

and the mighty waves of the sea,

the Lord sits enthroned in majesty. ⁸ 

Psalms 104:9

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

so that they would not cover the earth again. ⁹ 

[33:7]  ¹ tn Heb “[he] gathers like a pile the waters of the sea.” Some prefer to emend נֵד (ged, “heap, pile”; cf. NASB) to נֹד (nod, “bottle”; cf. NRSV; NIV “into jars”), but “pile” is used elsewhere to describe water that the Lord confines to one place (Exod 15:8; Josh 3:13, 16; Ps 78:13). This verse appears to refer to Gen 1:9, where God decrees that the watery deep be gathered to one place so that dry land might appear. If so, the participles in this and the following line depict this action with special vividness, as if the reader were present on the occasion. Another option is that the participles picture the confinement of the sea to one place as an ongoing divine activity.

[33:7]  ² tn Or “watery depths.” The form תְּהוֹמוֹת (tÿhomot, “watery depths”) is the plural form of תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “great deep”; see Gen 1:2).

[42:7]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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.

[78:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “and caused them to drink, like the depths, abundantly.”

[93:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “mighty waters.”

[93:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “mighty on high [is] the Lord.”

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