Nations rage, kingdoms crumble; the earth melts when He lifts His voice.
Parallel translations
- WEB The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved. He lifted his voice, and the earth melted.
- KJV The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
- NKJV The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.
- NASB The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth quaked.
- NLT The nations are in chaos, and their kingdoms crumble! God’s voice thunders, and the earth melts!
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
Nations rage and kingdoms totter, but at God's voice the earth melts. It matters because the mightiest human powers dissolve before God's word.
Overview
The uproar of nations is set against the single utterance of God, before which the earth itself melts away. Human kingdoms, for all their fury, are nothing compared to His power. This assures believers that no raging opposition can stand against the God who speaks and accomplishes His purposes in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 28
- Amos 9:5The Lord GOD of Hosts, He who touches the earth and it melts, and all its dwellers mourn—all the land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river of Egypt—
- Ps 18:13The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded—hailstones and coals of fire.
- Hab 3:5–6Plague went before Him, and fever followed in His steps.
- Mic 1:4The mountains will melt beneath Him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.
- Nah 1:5The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles at His presence—the world and all its dwellers.
- Joel 2:11The LORD raises His voice in the presence of His army. Indeed, His camp is very large, for mighty are those who obey His command. For the Day of the LORD is great and very dreadful. Who can endure it?
- Ps 2:1–4Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
- 2 Pet 3:10–12But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.
- Josh 2:9and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you.
- 2 Chr 20:20–24Early in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be upheld; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”
- Amos 9:13“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, with which all the hills will flow.
- 2 Chr 20:1After this, the Moabites and Ammonites, together with some of the Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat.
- Isa 64:1–2If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,
- Josh 2:24“The LORD has surely delivered the entire land into our hands,” they said to Joshua. “Indeed, all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of us.”
- Amos 1:2He said: “The LORD roars from Zion and raises His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the summit of Carmel withers.”
- Jer 25:30So you are to prophesy all these words against them and say to them: ‘The LORD will roar from on high; He will raise His voice from His holy habitation. He will roar loudly over His pasture; like those who tread the grapes, He will call out with a shout against all the inhabitants of the earth.
- Isa 37:21–36Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
- Ps 68:33to Him who rides upon the highest heavens of old; behold, His mighty voice resounds.
- Ps 83:2–8See how Your enemies rage, how Your foes have reared their heads.
- Isa 14:12–16How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations.
- 2 Chr 14:9–13Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots, and they advanced as far as Mareshah.
- Rev 6:13–14and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind.
- Hab 3:10–11The mountains saw You and quaked; torrents of water swept by. The deep roared with its voice and lifted its hands on high.
- Josh 2:11When we heard this, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.
- Isa 8:9–10Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!
- Ps 68:8the earth shook and the heavens poured down rain before God, the One on Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
- Ps 97:5The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.
- Rev 20:11Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them.
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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 46:6 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
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