The floodwaters have risen, O LORD; the rivers have raised their voice; the seas lift up their pounding waves.
Parallel translations
- WEB The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.
- KJV The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.
- NKJV The floods have lifted up, O Lord, The floods have lifted up their voice; The floods lift up their waves.
- NASB ¶The floods have lifted up, Lord, The floods have lifted up their voice, The floods lift up their pounding waves.
- NLT The floods have risen up, O Lord. The floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves.
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
The floods lift up their roaring voice and pounding waves. The chaotic forces of the world rise up in apparent defiance.
Overview
The surging floods picture the threatening, chaotic powers that seem to challenge God's order. In ancient imagery the raging waters often symbolize hostile forces and tumult. Yet their threefold uprising only sets the stage for declaring God's greater might in the next verse (Psalm 46:3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 96:11Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea resound, and all that fills it.
- Ps 69:1–2For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of David. Save me, O God, for the waters are up to my neck.
- Jer 46:7–8Who is this, rising like the Nile, like rivers whose waters churn?
- Ps 124:3–5when their anger flared against us, then they would have swallowed us alive,
- Isa 17:12–13Alas, the tumult of many peoples; they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations; they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.
- Ps 98:7–8Let the sea resound, and all that fills it, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- Isa 55:12You will indeed go out with joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
- Ps 18:4The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.
- Rev 17:15Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
- Jonah 2:3For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me; all Your breakers and waves swept over me.
- Ps 107:25–26For He spoke and raised a tempest that lifted the waves of the sea.
- Ps 69:14–16Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.
- Ps 2:1–3Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
- Rev 12:15Then from the mouth of the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away in the torrent.
- Acts 4:25–27You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
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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 93:3 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.