Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:
Parallel translations
- WEB then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul;
- BSB then the floods would have engulfed us, then the torrent would have overwhelmed us,
- NKJV Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our soul;
- NASB Then the waters would have flooded over us, The stream would have swept over our souls;
- NLT The waters would have engulfed us; a torrent would have overwhelmed us.
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
Without God, the floodwaters would have overwhelmed them. Engulfing waters picture the overwhelming danger from which God rescued them.
Overview
Shifting to a new image, the psalmist says the 'waters' and 'stream' would have swept over their very soul. Flood imagery vividly conveys being swallowed by chaos and death. God's deliverance from such overwhelming peril points to His power to save His people through every flood, secured in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 69:15Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
- Rev 17:15And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
- Rev 12:15–16And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
- Ps 32:6For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
- Isa 59:19So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
- Isa 8:7–8Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
- Ps 69:2I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
- Jer 46:7–8Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
- Ps 18:4The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
- Dan 9:26And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
- Isa 28:2Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
- Ps 42:7Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
- Rev 17:1And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
- Job 22:11Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.
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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 124:4 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.