He looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the hills, and they smoke.
Parallel translations
- WEB He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke.
- KJV He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
- BSB He looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smolder.
- NASB He looks at the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smoke.
- NLT The earth trembles at his glance; the mountains smoke at his touch.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God looks at the earth and it trembles; He touches the mountains and they smoke. Creation responds with awe to its sovereign Maker.
Overview
The psalmist depicts the earth quaking and mountains smoking at God's mere glance and touch, recalling the trembling of Sinai. Such imagery underscores His overwhelming majesty and power. Before this awesome God every knee will bow, for He has given all judgment to Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 144:5Part your heavens, Yahweh, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
- Exod 19:18All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
- Ps 97:4–5His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and trembles.
- Hab 3:10The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.
- Ps 114:7Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
- Hab 3:5–6Plague went before him, and pestilence followed his feet.
- Jer 5:22Don’t you fear me?’ says Yahweh ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? and though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail; though they roar, yet they can’t pass over it.’
- Rev 20:11I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
- Nah 1:5–6The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- Amos 8:8Won’t the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it? Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt.
- Ps 77:16The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.
- Jer 4:23–26I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
- Isa 64:1–2Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.
- Ps 50:3Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
- Rev 19:3A second said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up forever and ever.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 104:32 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.