¶The floods have lifted up, Lord, The floods have lifted up their voice, The floods 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.
- BSB The floodwaters have risen, O LORD; the rivers have raised their voice; the seas lift up their pounding waves.
- NKJV The floods have lifted up, O Lord, The floods have lifted up their voice; The floods lift up their 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 let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and its fullness!
- Ps 69:1–2For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By David. Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!
- Jer 46:7–8“Who is this who rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?
- Ps 124:3–5then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us;
- Isa 17:12–13Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!
- Ps 98:7–8Let the sea roar with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein.
- Isa 55:12For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.
- Ps 18:4The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
- Rev 17:15He said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.
- Jonah 2:3For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.
- Ps 107:25–26For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves.
- Ps 69:14–16Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
- Ps 2:1–3Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
- Rev 12:15The 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.
- Acts 4:25–27who by the mouth of your servant, David, said, ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
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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.