Then the waters would have flooded over us, The stream would have swept over our souls;
Parallel translations
- WEB then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul;
- KJV Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had 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;
- 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 69:15Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
- Rev 17:15He said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.
- Rev 12:15–16The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream.
- Ps 32:6For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.
- Isa 59:19So shall they fear Yahweh’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which Yahweh’s breath drives.
- Isa 8:7–8now therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks.
- Ps 69:2I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
- Jer 46:7–8“Who is this who rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?
- Ps 18:4The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
- Dan 9:26After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and its end shall be with a flood, and even to the end shall be war; desolations are determined.
- Isa 28:2Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.
- Ps 42:7Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
- Rev 17:1One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,
- Job 22:11or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
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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 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.