Psalms 114:6
in Psalms 114O mountains, that you skipped like rams, O hills, like lambs?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Ye mountains, that ye skip like rams; Ye little hills, like lambs?
KJV
Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs?
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This verse in Psalms 114
Commentary
5 notes on this verseYe mountains, that ye skipped like rams,.... Not for joy, but fear; what caused these trembling motions, these violent agitations, and quakings, and movings to and fro like the skipping of rams? And ye little hills, like lambs? what was it that disturbed you, and put you into a panic, that you skipped like frightened lambs? These questions are put, by a beautiful and poetical figure, to inanimate creatures; the Red sea, the river of Jordan, the mountains of Sinai and Horeb, and the hills about them; to which an answer is turned in the next verse.
This site's exposition
The sea observed and fled
on Psalms 114:3-6
The sea that fled is the one the LORD drove back at Exodus 14:21, and the Jordan that turned back is the water standing still at Joshua 3:16. One crossing opened the wilderness years and the other closed them. Verses 5 and 6 put the question to the sea, the Jordan, the mountains and the hills by name.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"When Israel came out of Egypt, and the house of Jacob from among the strange people" [Psalm 114:1], "Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion" [Psalm 114:2]; "the sea saw that and fled, Jordan was driven back" [Psalm 114:3]. Think not that past deeds are related unto us, but rather that the future is predicted; since, while those miracles also were going on in that people, things present indeed were happening, but not without an intimation of things future....Some things he has related differently to what we have learned and read there: that he might not truly be thought to be repeating past acts rather than to be prophesying future things. For in the first place, we read not that the Jordan was driven back, but that it stood still on the side nearest the source of its streams, while the people were passing through; next, we read not of the mountains and hills skipping: all which he has added, and repeated. For after saying, "The sea saw that, and fled; Jordan was driven back:" he added, "The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like young sheep" [Psalm 114:4]: and then asks, "What ails you, O thou sea, that you fled, and thou, Jordan, that you were driven back?" [Psalm 114:5]. "You mountains, that you skipped like rams; and you little hills, like young sheep?" [Psalm 114:6].
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? What ailed ye, that ye were thus moved? There is but one reply: the majesty of God made you to leap. A gracious mind will chide human nature for its strange insensibility, when the sea and the river, the mountains and the hills, are all sensitive to the presence of God. Man is endowed with reason and intelligence, and yet he sees unmoved that which the material creation beholds with fear.
Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? What ailed ye, that ye were thus moved? There is but one reply: the majesty of God made you to leap. A gracious mind will chide human nature for its strange insensibility, when the sea and the river, the mountains and the hills, are all sensitive to the presence of God. Man is endowed with reason and intelligence, and yet he sees unmoved that which the material creation beholds with fear. God has come nearer to us than ever he did to Sinai, or to Jordan, for he has assumed our nature, and yet the mass of mankind are neither driven back from their sins, nor moved in the paths of obedience.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֶֽ֭הָרִים | heharim | O mountains | H2022 → | 546 times |
| תִּרְקְד֣וּ | tirkedu | you will skip about | H7540 → | 9 times |
| כְאֵילִ֑ים | kheeilim | like rams | H352 → | 187 times |
| גְּ֝בָע֗וֹת | gevaot | O hills | H1389 → | 68 times |
| כִּבְנֵי־ | kivnei- | like young ones of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| צֹֽאן׃ | tzon | sheep | H6629 → | 274 times |
הֶֽ֭הָרִיםO mountains
heharimH2022 →546 times
תִּרְקְד֣וּyou will skip about
tirkeduH7540 →9 times
כְאֵילִ֑יםlike rams
kheeilimH352 →187 times
גְּ֝בָע֗וֹתO hills
gevaotH1389 →68 times
כִּבְנֵי־like young ones of
kivnei-H1121 →4930 times
צֹֽאן׃sheep
tzonH6629 →274 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 114:4the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
it leads to
- Judges 5:4–5
O LORD, when You went out from Seir, when You marched from the land of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens poured out rain, and the clouds poured down water.
- Exodus 19:18
Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.
- Exodus 20:18
When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sounding of the ram’s horn, and the mountain enveloped in smoke, they trembled and stood at a distance.
- Habakkuk 3:6
He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations; the ancient mountains crumbled; the perpetual hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting.
- Jeremiah 4:23–24
I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.
- Judges 5:4–5
Through
Psalms 29:6He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.
it leads to
- Numbers 23:22
God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox.
- Psalms 114:4–7
the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
- Deuteronomy 3:9
which the Sidonians call Sirion but the Amorites call Senir—
- Numbers 23:22
About Psalms
This page draws on Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 114; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 5; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.