Then the channels of waters appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, Yahweh, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
Parallel Translations
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Then the channels of waters appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, Yahweh, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
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Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
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(18-16) And the channels of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were laid bare, at Thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Psalms 18:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 106:9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; so he led them through the depths, as through a desert.
- Exodus 15:8 With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.
- Micah 6:2 Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s controversy, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
- Joshua 3:13-16 It shall be that when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan will be cut off. The waters that come down from above shall stand in one heap.” When the people moved from their tents to pass over the Jordan, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant being before the people, and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark had dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest), the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people passed over near Jericho.
- 2 Samuel 22:16 Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by Yahweh’s rebuke, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
- Job 4:9 By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.
- Psalms 76:6 At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
- Psalms 104:5 He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever.
- Jeremiah 31:37 Yahweh says: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” says Yahweh.
- 2 Kings 19:7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”
- Job 38:4-6 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it? What were its foundations fastened on? Or who laid its cornerstone,
- Psalms 74:15 You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
- Isaiah 30:27-28 Behold, Yahweh’s name comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation. His tongue is as a devouring fire. His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.
- Isaiah 11:4 but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
- Jonah 2:6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God.
- Isaiah 30:33 For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 15. And the sources of the waters were seen.…
15. And the sources of the waters were seen. In this verse, David doubtless alludes to the miracle which was wrought when the chosen tribes passed through the Red Sea. I have before declared the purpose for which he does this. As all the special benefits which God in old time conferred upon any of the children of Abraham as individuals, were so many testimonies by which he recalled to their remembrance the covenant which he had once entered into with the whole people, to assure them that he would always continue his grace towards them, and that one deliverance might be to them a token or pledge of their perpetual safety, and of the protection of God, David fitly conjoins with that ancient deliverance of the Church the assistance which God had sent from heaven to him in particular. As the grace which he declares God had shown towards him was not to be separated from that first deliverance, since it was, so to speak, a part and an appendage of it, he beholds, as it were at a glance, or in an instant, both the ancient miracle of the drying up of the Red Sea, and the assistance which God granted to himself. In short, God, who once opened up for his people a way through the Red Sea, and then showed himself to be their protector upon this condition, that they should assure themselves of being always maintained and preserved under his keeping, now again displayed his wonderful power in the defense and preservation of one man, to renew the remembrance of that ancient history. From this it appears the more evidently, that David, in using these apparently strange and exaggerated hyperboles, does not recite to us the mere creations of romance to please the fancy, after the manner of the heathen poets, “En usant de ces hyperboles et similitudes qui semblent estranges et excessives ne nous recite pas des fables et contes faits a plaisir a la fakon des Poietes profanes.” — Fr.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, the deep bottoms were seen when the…
That is, the deep bottoms were seen when the red sea was divided.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 18:15 Then the channels of waters were seen,…
Psa 18:15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
Ver. 15. Then the channels of waters were seen] The force of this terrible tempest is further set forth by the effect of it, a dreadful concussion of the universe; not without an allusion to the drying up of the Red Sea and of Jordan before Israel: which deliverances stood for archetypes, or chief patterns, to all posterity.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain By mighty and terrible earthquakes, which overturned the earth,…
By mighty and terrible earthquakes, which overturned the earth, and made its lower parts uppermost and visible.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain He sent from above,.... Either his hand, as in…
He sent from above,.... Either his hand, as in Psa 144:7; he exerted and displayed his mighty power in raising Christ from the dead; or he sent help from his sanctuary; as in Psa 20:2; and helped and strengthened him in a day of salvation; or when he wrought out the salvation of his people; or "he sent his word", as in Psa 107:20; his word of command, to take up his life again, as he had given it to lay it down, Joh 10:18. The Targum is, he sent his prophets; but it may be much better supplied, he sent his angels, or an angel; as he did at his resurrection, who rolled away the stone from the sepulchre, as a token of his justification and discharge: so Jarchi interprets it, he sent his angels; and Aben Ezra supplies it thus,
"he sent his word or his angel:''
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unless the sense should be, as Cocceius suggests, he sent a cloud from above, which was done at Christ's ascension, and which received him out of the sight of the apostles, Act 1:9. Since it follows,
he took me; that is, up to heaven; thither Christ was carried in a cloud, one of God's chariots, he sent for him; and where he is received, and will be retained until his second coming; though rather the sense is, he took me by the hand:
he drew me out of many waters. This is said either in allusion to Moses, who had his name from his being drawn out of the water, Exo 2:10; and who was an eminent type of Christ; and this is the only place where the Hebrew word is made use of from whence he had his name; or else to a man plunged in water ready to be drowned; see Psa 69:1. By these "many waters" may be meant the many afflictions, sorrows, and sufferings from which Christ was freed, when raised from the dead, and highly exalted and crowned with glory and honour; and the torrent of sins which flowed in upon him at the time he was made sin for his people, from which he was justified when risen; and so will appear a second time without sin unto salvation; and the wrath of God, the waves and billows of which went over him, and compassed him about as water, at the time of his sufferings; from which he was delivered when he was shown the path of life, and entered into the presence of God, and sat at his right hand, where are joys and pleasures for evermore; and also his grand enemy Satan, with his principalities and powers, who came in like a flood upon him; but he destroyed him and spoiled them; and particularly the floods of ungodly men, spoken of in Psa 18:4; seem to be here designed; compare with this Psa 144:7; "so many waters" signify many people and nations, Rev 17:15; and accordingly the Targum is,
"he delivered me from many people.''
This was true of Christ when risen and ascended; he was then separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; and this sense is confirmed by the following words, where what is expressed figuratively here is there literally explained.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Discovered - By mighty earthquakes, which overturned the earth,…
Discovered - By mighty earthquakes, which overturned the earth, and made its lower parts visible.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 15. The channels of water were seen] This…
Verse 15. The channels of water were seen] This must refer to an earthquake; for in such cases, the ground being rent, water frequently gushes out at the fissures, and often rises to a tremendous height. Whole rivers were poured out of the chasms made by the earthquake in Jamaica, A. D. 1694; and new lakes of water were formed, covering a thousand acres of land!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 18:15. Then the channels of waters were seen…
Psa 18:15. Then the channels of waters were seen — This is a description of the effects of the earthquake, by which the earth was rent in sunder, and such clefts made in it that the subterraneous passages of the waters were discovered, as has frequently been the case in violent earthquakes, whole rivers of waters sometimes issuing from the clefts, and spouting up a great height into the air. The foundations of the world were discovered — That is, Such large and deep chasms, or apertures, were made by the violence of the shock that the lower parts of the earth were laid open to view, and made perfectly visible.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Then the channels of waters were seen - In…
Then the channels of waters were seen - In 2Sa 22:16 this is, “And the channels of the sea appeared.” The idea is that, by the driving of the storm and tempest, the waters were driven on heaps, leaving the bottom bare. In the place before us the word used, “waters” - מים mayim - would denote waters of any kind - seas, lakes, rivers; in the corresponding place in 2 Samuel, the word used - ים yâm - denotes, properly, the sea or the ocean. The word rendered channels means a pipe or tube; then a channel, or bed of a brook or stream, Isa 8:7; Eze 32:6; and then the bottom of the sea or of a river. The allusion is to the effect of a violent wind, driving the waters on heaps, and seeming to leave the bed or channel bare.
The foundations of the world were discovered - Were laid open; were manifested or revealed. People seemed to be able to look down into the depths, and to see the very foundations on which the earth rests. The world is often represented as resting on a foundation, Psa 102:25; Isa 48:13; Zec 12:1; Pro 8:29; see the note at Job 38:4.
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At thy rebuke - At the expression of his anger or displeasure; as if God, in the fury of the tempest, was expressing his indignation and wrath.
At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils - At the breathing forth of anger, as it were, from his nostrils. See the note at Psa 18:8.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The tempest of the air is attended by appropriate…
The tempest of the air is attended by appropriate results on earth. The language, though not expressive of any special physical changes, represents the utter subversion of the order of nature. Before such a God none can stand.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15. Then—Emphatic: when the divine judgments had been fully…
15. Then—Emphatic: when the divine judgments had been fully executed. The psalmist describes (to Psa_18:19) the wonderful effects of the divine interference.
Channels of waters—In the parallel place (2Sa_22:16) it reads, “channels of the sea.” The plural denotes the Red Sea and Jordan. Exo_14:21-22; Jos_3:15-17.
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Foundations of the world—The Hebrews had no knowledge of the interior of the earth below the bottom of the sea and the rocky foundations of the mountains.
Jon_2:6. The figure is in harmony with ancient geogony, and poetically admissible in any age. See notes on Psa_24:2; Psa_104:5; Psa_104:9
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15. The waters of the sea retreat, its bed…
15. The waters of the sea retreat, its bed is seen, and the hidden bases of the world are laid bare, owning their Lord and Master, as of old at the Exodus when “He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up.” See Exo_15:8; Psa_106:9; Nah_1:4. Cp. too Mat_8:26. Channels of the sea (2 Sam.) is the preferable reading.
were discovered] i.e. as R.V., were laid bare, the original meaning of the word discover, which it generally retains in the A.V. Cp. Psa_29:9.
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at the blast &c.] Cp. Psa_18:8.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) The channels.—The description of the storm ends with…
(15) The channels.—The description of the storm ends with the fury of the wind and the effects of the tempest on the earth’s surface. Comp. Psalms 29, and Milton:—
“Either tropic now
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‘Gan thunder and both ends of heaven the clouds,
From many a horrid rift abortive pour’d
Fierce rain with lightning mix’d, water with fire,
In ruin reconciled; nor slept the winds
Within their stony caves, but rush’d abroad
From the four hinges of the world and fell
On the vex’d wilderness.”
—Par. Reg. iv. 409416.
Here, to suit the poet’s purpose (see next verse), the rage of the tempest is made to spend itself on the water-floods. The “channels” are either torrent beds (Isa_8:7; Psa_42:1; Job_6:15), or as in Samuel (where for “waters” the text has “sea”) the depths of ocean. (Comp. Jon_2:5.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Then the channels of waters were seen. By "the…
Then the channels of waters were seen. By "the channels of waters" seem to be meant the torrent-courses, so common in Palestine, especially on either side of Jordan, which convey into it the winter rains. These "were seen," lit up by the "lightnings manifold," having previously been in darkness (see vers. 9-11). At the same time, the foundations of the world were discovered. The earthquake (ver. 7) still continuing, the earth gaped in places, and the glare of the lightning enabled the eye to penetrate deep into the solid globe so deep that it seemed to reach the "foundations." At thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils (comp. ver. 7, "because he was wroth").
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 15. So tremendous was the shock of God's…
Ver. 15. So tremendous was the shock of God's assault in arms that the order of nature was changed, and the bottoms of rivers and seas were laid bare.
The channels of waters was seen; and the deep cavernous bowels of the earth were upheaved till
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the foundations of the world were discovered. What will not Jehovah's rebuke do? If the blast of the breath of thy nostrils, O Lord, be so terrible, what must thine arm be? Vain are the attempts of men to conceal anything from him whose word unbars the deep, and lifts the doors of earth from their hinges! Vain are all hopes of resistance, for a whisper of his voice makes the whole earth quail in abject terror.
Ver. 15. The foundations of the world were discovered; i.e., such large and deep chasms, or apertures, were made by the violence of the earthquake, as one might almost see the very foundations, or as Jonah calls them, the bottoms, or rather, the extremities of the mountains, in the bottom of the sea. Jon 2:6. Samuel Chandler.
Ver. 15. The Lord interposed with the same notoriety of his presence, as when the waters of the sea were driven back by a strong east wind, and the deep turned into dry ground (Ex 14:21-22), to give the Israelites a safe passage out of their thraldom, and to drown the Egyptians. Henry Hammond.
None.
Psalms 18:16*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
The writer continues to speak of Yaweh's great power.
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Then the water channels appeared; the foundations of the world were laid bare
These two clauses have similar meanings. This can be stated in active form. AT: "Then the water channels appeared and the bottom of the ocean became visible; you exposed the foundations of the world" (See: Parallelism and Active or Passive)
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils
Though God does not have human physical characteristics as described here, this pictures his mighty strength. The wind is spoken of here as if it came as a mighty blast from God's nostrils. (See: Personification and Metaphor)
translationWords
water
found
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.