Psalm 104:6-13
New Catholic Bible
6 You covered it with the deep like a cloak;
the waters rose above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke[a] the waters took to flight;
at the sound of your thunder they fled in terror.
8 They rose up to the mountains
and flowed down to the valleys,[b]
to the place that you had designated for them.
9 You established a boundary that they were not to cross
so that they would never again cover the earth.
10 [c]You made springs gush forth in the valleys
and flow between the mountains.
11 They supply water to every beast of the field,
and from them the wild asses quench their thirst.
12 On the banks the birds of the air build nests
and sing among the branches.
13 [d]From your dwelling you water the mountains,
enriching the earth with the fruit of your labor.
Footnotes
- Psalm 104:7 Rebuke: see Ps 76:7. Waters took to flight: poetic description of what took place on the third day of creation (see Gen 1:9f).
- Psalm 104:8 They rose up to the mountains and flowed down to the valleys: the sources of the Jordan and the other great rivers of the Near East are in the mountains. Another translation offered is: “The mountains rose high and the valleys went down.”
- Psalm 104:10 God refreshes the ravines by means of the lower waters.
- Psalm 104:13 God refreshes his creatures by means of the reservoir of upper waters (see v. 3; Gen 7:11; Job 38:22; Sir 43:14).
