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Psalm 46

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Elohim our refuge and strength

1 Elohim is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be changed, and though the mountains be moved into the heart of the seas; 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling. Selah.

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of Elohim, the holy dwellings of the Most High. 5 Elohim is in her midst; she shall not be moved; Elohim will help her when the morning appears. 6 The nations roared, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. 7 Yahweh Tsevaot is with us; the Elohim of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.

Be still, and know

8 Come, behold the works of Yahweh, who has made desolations in the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. 10 Be still, and know that I am Elohim; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. 11 Yahweh Tsevaot is with us; the Elohim of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.

Notes

  • 46:1 Title: on "the sons of Korah" see the note at 42:1. Alamoth appears also in 1 Chronicles 15:20, where Levites play "with harps set to Alamoth" (see the note there). Its meaning is uncertain: the word means "young women," and many think it marks a high register, as Sheminith may mark a low one (see the note at 6:1). "A very present help" is literally "a help in troubles, found exceedingly": Elohim is the help that is always there to be found when trouble comes.
  • 46:4 Jerusalem has no great river, only the spring of Gihon and the gentle waters of Shiloah (compare Isaiah 8:6). Against the roaring sea of verses 2-3 stands a quiet river that brings gladness, and many hear an echo of the river that "went out from Eden to water the garden" (Genesis 2:10). The prophets later see a river flowing out from the house of Yahweh (Ezekiel 47:1-12), and John sees the river of the water of life in the new Jerusalem (Revelation 22:1-2).
  • 46:5 One verb (mot) runs through the psalm: "though the mountains be moved" (verse 2), "the kingdoms were moved" (verse 6): everything totters, but of the city where Elohim dwells, "she shall not be moved." "When the morning appears" (lifnot boker) is the same phrase as at the Red Sea, where the sea returned "when the morning appeared" (Exodus 14:27); rescue comes at dawn after a night of danger. Many have connected the psalm with the night the Assyrian army perished outside Jerusalem and the people found the camp dead in the morning (2 Kings 19:35), though the psalm names no event.
  • 46:10 Elohim Himself speaks. "Be still" is harpu, literally "let go, let your hands drop, stop": in this psalm of raging nations and broken weapons it is first a command to the warring nations to cease their fighting, and with it a call to His people to stop striving and acknowledge who He is. Then the refrain returns (verse 11, as in verse 7): "Yahweh Tsevaot is with us" (immanu), the word that Isaiah gives in the name Immanuel, "El with us" (Isaiah 7:14; 8:8, 10).

Psalm 45 · Psalm 47

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