Psalms 68:4

68:4 Sing to God! Sing praises to his name!

Exalt the one who rides on the clouds! ¹ 

For the Lord is his name! ² 

Rejoice before him!

Psalms 144:5-15

144:5 O Lord, make the sky sink ³  and come down! ⁴ 

Touch the mountains and make them smolder! ⁵ 

144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!

Shoot your arrows and rout them! ⁶ 

144:7 Reach down ⁷  from above!

Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, ⁸ 

from the power of foreigners, ⁹ 

144:8 who speak lies,

and make false promises. ¹⁰ 

144:9 O God, I will sing a new song to you!

Accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, I will sing praises to you,

144:10 the one who delivers ¹¹  kings,

and rescued David his servant from a deadly ¹²  sword.

144:11 Grab me and rescue me from the power of foreigners, ¹³ 

who speak lies,

and make false promises. ¹⁴ 

144:12 Then ¹⁵  our sons will be like plants,

that quickly grow to full size. ¹⁶ 

Our daughters will be like corner pillars, ¹⁷ 

carved like those in a palace. ¹⁸ 

144:13 Our storehouses ¹⁹  will be full,

providing all kinds of food. ²⁰ 

Our sheep will multiply by the thousands

and fill ²¹  our pastures. ²² 

144:14 Our cattle will be weighted down with produce. ²³ 

No one will break through our walls,

no one will be taken captive,

and there will be no terrified cries in our city squares. ²⁴ 

144:15 How blessed are the people who experience these things! ²⁵ 

How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!

Deuteronomy 33:26

General Praise and Blessing

33:26 There is no one like God, O Jeshurun, ²⁶ 

who rides through the sky ²⁷  to help you,

on the clouds in majesty.

Deuteronomy 33:2

33:2 He said:

A Historical Review

The Lord came from Sinai

and revealed himself ²⁸  to Israel ²⁹  from Seir.

He appeared in splendor ³⁰  from Mount Paran,

and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. ³¹ 

With his right hand he gave a fiery law ³²  to them.

Deuteronomy 22:10

22:10 You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.

Isaiah 51:6

51:6 Look up at the sky!

Look at the earth below!

For the sky will dissipate ³³  like smoke,

and the earth will wear out like clothes;

its residents will die like gnats.

But the deliverance I give ³⁴  is permanent;

the vindication I provide ³⁵  will not disappear. ³⁶ 

Joel 3:16

3:16 The Lord roars from Zion;

from Jerusalem ³⁷  his voice bellows out. ³⁸ 

The heavens ³⁹  and the earth shake.

But the Lord is a refuge for his people;

he is a stronghold for the citizens ⁴⁰  of Israel.

Matthew 24:29

The Arrival of the Son of Man

24:29 “Immediately ⁴¹  after the suffering ⁴²  of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. ⁴³ 

Hebrews 12:26

12:26 Then his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “I will once more shake not only the earth but heaven too.” ⁴⁴ 

Hebrews 12:2

12:2 keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ⁴⁵ 

Hebrews 3:10

3:10 “Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering ⁴⁶  and they have not known my ways.’

Revelation 20:11

The Great White Throne

20:11 Then ⁴⁷  I saw a large ⁴⁸  white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven ⁴⁹  fled ⁵⁰  from his presence, and no place was found for them.

[68:4]  ¹ tn Traditionally the Hebrew term עֲרָבוֹת (’aravot) is taken as “steppe-lands” (often rendered “deserts”), but here the form is probably a homonym meaning “clouds.” Verse 33, which depicts God as the one who “rides on the sky” strongly favors this (see as well Deut 33:26), as does the reference in v. 9 to God as the source of rain. The term עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “cloud”) is cognate with Akkadian urpatu/erpetu and with Ugaritic ’rpt. The phrase rkb ’rpt (“one who rides on the clouds”) appears in Ugaritic mythological texts as an epithet of the storm god Baal. The nonphonemic interchange of the bilabial consonants b and p is attested elsewhere in roots common to Hebrew and Ugaritic, though the phenomenon is relatively rare.

[68:4]  ² tc Heb “in the Lord his name.” If the MT is retained, the preposition -בְ (bet) is introducing the predicate (the so-called bet of identity), “the Lord is his name.” However, some prefer to emend the text to כִּי יָהּ שְׁמוֹ (ki yah shÿmo, “for Yah is his name”). This emendation, reflected in the present translation, assumes a confusion of bet (ב) and kaf (כ) and haplography of yod (י).

[144:5]  ³ tn The Hebrew verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “to [cause to] bend; to [cause to] bow down.” For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden. Here the Lord causes the sky, pictured as a dome or vault, to sink down as he descends in the storm. See Ps 18:9.

[144:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “so you might come down.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The same type of construction is utilized in v. 6.

[144:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.

[144:6]  ⁶ sn Arrows and lightning bolts are associated in other texts (see Pss 18:14; 77:17-18; Zech 9:14), as well as in ancient Near Eastern art (see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” [Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983], 187).

[144:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”

[144:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful foreign enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see the next line and Ps 18:16-17).

[144:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”

[144:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “who [with] their mouth speak falsehood, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” The reference to the “right hand” is probably a metonymy for an oath. When making an oath, one would raise the hand as a solemn gesture. See Exod 6:8; Num 14:30; Deut 32:40. The figure thus represents the making of false oaths (false promises).

[144:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “grants deliverance to.”

[144:10]  ¹² tn Heb “harmful.”

[144:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”

[144:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who [with] their mouth speak falsehood, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” See v. 8 where the same expression occurs.

[144:12]  ¹⁵ tn Some consider אֲשֶׁר (’asher) problematic, but here it probably indicates the anticipated consequence of the preceding request. (For other examples of אֲשֶׁר indicating purpose/result, see BDB 83 s.v. and HALOT 99 s.v.) If the psalmist – who appears to be a Davidic king preparing to fight a battle (see vv. 10-11) – is victorious, the whole nation will be spared invasion and defeat (see v. 14) and can flourish. Some prefer to emend the form to אַשְׁרֵי (“how blessed [are our sons]”). A suffixed noun sometimes follows אַשְׁרֵי (’ashrey; see 1 Kgs 10:8; Prov 20:7), but the presence of a comparative element (see “like plants”) after the suffixed noun makes the proposed reading too awkward syntactically.

[144:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “grown up in their youth.” The translation assumes that “grown up” modifies “plants” (just as “carved” modifies “corner pillars” in the second half of the verse). Another option is to take “grown up” as a predicate in relation to “our sons,” in which case one might translate, “they will be strapping youths.”

[144:12]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here and in Zech 9:15, where it refers to the corners of an altar.

[144:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “carved [in] the pattern of a palace.”

[144:13]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here.

[144:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “from kind to kind.” Some prefer to emend the text to מָזוֹן עַל מָזוֹן (mazon ’al mazon, “food upon food”).

[144:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “they are innumerable.”

[144:13]  ²² tn Heb “in outside places.” Here the term refers to pastures and fields (see Job 5:10; Prov 8:26).

[144:14]  ²³ tn Heb “weighted down.” This probably refers (1) to the cattle having the produce from the harvest placed on their backs to be transported to the storehouses (see BDB 687 s.v. סָבַל). Other options are (2) to take this as reference to the cattle being pregnant (see HALOT 741 s.v. סבל pu) or (3) to their being well-fed or fattened (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 288).

[144:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “there [will be] no breach, and there [will be] no going out, and there [will be] no crying out in our broad places.”

[144:15]  ²⁵ tn Heb “[O] the happiness of the people who [it is] such to them.”

[33:26]  ²⁶ sn Jeshurun is a term of affection referring to Israel, derived from the Hebrew verb יָשַׁר (yashar, “be upright”). See note on the term in Deut 32:15.

[33:26]  ²⁷ tn Or “(who) rides (on) the heavens” (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT). This title depicts Israel’s God as sovereign over the elements of the storm (cf. Ps 68:33). The use of the phrase here may be polemical; Moses may be asserting that Israel’s God, not Baal (called the “rider of the clouds” in the Ugaritic myths), is the true divine king (cf. v. 5) who controls the elements of the storm, grants agricultural prosperity, and delivers his people from their enemies. See R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “The Polemic against Baalism in Israel’s Early History and Literature,” BSac 151 (1994): 275.

[33:2]  ²⁸ tn Or “rose like the sun” (NCV, TEV).

[33:2]  ²⁹ tc Heb “to him.” The LXX reads “to us” (לָנוּ [lanu] for לָמוֹ [lamo]), the reading of the MT is acceptable since it no doubt has in mind Israel as a collective singular.

[33:2]  ³⁰ tn Or “he shone forth” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[33:2]  ³¹ tc With slight alteration (מִמְרִבַת קָדֵשׁ [mimrivat qadesh] for the MT’s מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ [merivvot qodesh]) the translation would be “from Meribah Kadesh” (cf. NAB, NLT; see Deut 32:51). However, the language of holy war in the immediate context favors the reading of the MT, which views the Lord as accompanied by angelic hosts.

[33:2]  ³² tc The mispointed Hebrew term אֵשְׁדָּת (’eshdat) should perhaps be construed as אֵשְׁהַת (’eshhat) with Smr.

[51:6]  ³³ tn Heb “will be torn in pieces.” The perfect indicates the certitude of the event, from the Lord’s rhetorical perspective.

[51:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “my deliverance.” The same Hebrew word can also be translated “salvation” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. CEV “victory.”

[51:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “my righteousness [or “vindication”].”

[51:6]  ³⁶ tn Heb “will not be shattered [or “dismayed”].”

[3:16]  ³⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:16]  ³⁸ tn Heb “he sounds forth his voice.”

[3:16]  ³⁹ tn Or “the sky.” See the note on “sky” in 2:30.

[3:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “sons.”

[24:29]  ⁴¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[24:29]  ⁴² tn Traditionally, “tribulation.”

[24:29]  ⁴³ sn An allusion to Isa 13:10, 34:4 (LXX); Joel 2:10. The heavens were seen as the abode of heavenly forces, so their shaking indicates distress in the spiritual realm. Although some take the powers as a reference to bodies in the heavens (like stars and planets, “the heavenly bodies,” NIV) this is not as likely.

[12:26]  ⁴⁴ sn A quotation from Hag 2:6.

[12:2]  ⁴⁵ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1.

[3:10]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “they are wandering in the heart.”

[20:11]  ⁴⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[20:11]  ⁴⁸ tn Traditionally, “great,” but μέγας (megas) here refers to size rather than importance.

[20:11]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “and the sky.” The same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky,” and context usually determines which is meant. In this apocalyptic scene, however, it is difficult to be sure what referent to assign the term.

[20:11]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “vanished.”