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Psalm 114[a]

114 When Israel left Egypt,
when the family of Jacob left a foreign nation behind,[b]
Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his kingdom.
The sea looked and fled;[c]
the Jordan River[d] turned back.[e]
The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.[f]
Why do you flee, O sea?
Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?
Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,
like lambs, O hills?
Tremble, O earth, before the Lord—
before the God of Jacob,
who turned a rock into a pool of water,
a hard rock into springs of water.[g]

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 114:1 sn Psalm 114. The psalmist recalls the events of the exodus and conquest and celebrates God’s kingship over his covenant people.
  2. Psalm 114:1 tn Heb “the house of Jacob from a nation speaking a foreign language.”
  3. Psalm 114:3 sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Red Sea (Exod 14:21).
  4. Psalm 114:3 tn Heb “the Jordan” (also in v. 5). The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
  5. Psalm 114:3 sn The psalmist recalls the crossing of the Jordan River (Josh 3:13, 16).
  6. Psalm 114:4 sn The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. This may recall the theophany at Sinai when the mountain shook before God’s presence (Exod 19:18).
  7. Psalm 114:8 sn In v. 8 the psalmist recalls the event(s) recorded in Exod 17:6 and/or Num 20:11 (see also Deut 8:15 and Ps 78:15-16, 20).