Add parallel Print Page Options

Psalm 114[a]

The Lord’s Wonders at the Exodus

When Israel came forth from Egypt,
    the house of Jacob from an alien people,
Judah became God’s sanctuary,
    Israel, God’s domain.(A)
[b]The sea saw and fled;
    the Jordan turned back.(B)
The mountains skipped like rams;
    the hills, like lambs.(C)
Why was it, sea, that you fled?
    Jordan, that you turned back?
Mountains, that you skipped like rams?
    You hills, like lambs?
Tremble, earth, before the Lord,(D)
    before the God of Jacob,
[c]Who turned the rock into pools of water,
    flint into a flowing spring.(E)

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 114 A hymn celebrating Israel’s escape from Egypt, journey through the wilderness, and entry into the promised land, and the miracles of nature that bore witness to God’s presence in their midst. In the perspective of the Psalm, the people proceed directly from Egypt into the promised land (Ps 114:1–2). Sea and Jordan, which stood like soldiers barring the people from their land, flee before the mighty God as the earth recoils from the battle (Ps 114:3–4). The poet taunts the natural elements as one taunts defeated enemies (Ps 114:5–6).
  2. 114:3–4 Pairs of cosmic elements such as sea and rivers, mountains and hills, are sometimes mentioned in creation accounts. Personified here as warriors, the pairs tremble in fear before the Divine Warrior. The quaking also recalls the divine appearance in the storm at Sinai (Ex 19:16–19) and elsewhere (Jgs 5:4–5; Ps 18:7–15).
  3. 114:8 The miracles of giving drink to the people in the arid desert, cf. Ex 17:1–7; Is 41:17–18.

114 When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language;

Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.

The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.

The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.

What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?

Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs?

Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob;

Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.