Psalms 93:3
in Psalms 93The floodwaters have risen, O LORD; the rivers have raised their voice; the seas lift up their pounding waves.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The floods have lifted up, O Jehovah, 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.
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This verse in Psalms 93
Commentary
10 notes on this verseThe floods have lifted up, O Lord, they have lifted up their voices; from the voices of many waters, wonderful are the surgings of the sea. As many words, so many meanings: as many little verses, so many sacraments. The floods have lifted up their voices. This is what is said in another place: 'The rush of the river maketh glad the city of God.' And in another place: 'The rivers shall clap their hands together.' The floods seem to me to be those which water the whole world, the apostolic and prophetic dignities.
This site's exposition
The floodwaters have risen
on Psalms 93:3-4
One Hebrew word, neharot, stands behind floodwaters, rivers and seas, and the verb for lifting up comes three times with it. The noise rises through the whole verse. Verse 4 sets the LORD on high above the roar of many waters and the breakers of the sea.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"The floods lift up their voices" [Psalm 93:3]. What are these floods, which have lift up their voices? We heard them not: neither when our Lord was born, did we hear rivers speak, nor when He was baptized, nor when He suffered; we heard not that rivers did speak. Read the Gospel, you find not that rivers spoke. It is not enough that they spoke: "They have lift up their voice:" they have not only spoken, but bravely, mightily, in a lofty voice. What are those rivers which have spoken?...The Spirit itself was a mighty river, whence many rivers were filled. Of that river the Psalmist says in another passage, "The rivers of the flood thereof shall make glad the city of God." Rivers then were made to flow from the belly of the disciples, when they received the Holy Spirit: themselves were rivers, when they had received that Holy Spirit. Whence did those rivers lift their voices? Wherefore did they lift them up? Because at first they feared. Peter was not yet a river, when at the question of the maid-servant he thrice denied Christ: "I do not know the man." [Matthew 26:69-74] Here he lies through fear: he lifts not his voice as yet: he is not yet the river. But when they were filled with the Holy Spirit, the Jews sent for them, and enjoined them not to preach at all, nor to teach in the name of Jesus....For when the Apostles had been dismissed from the council of the Jews, they came to their own friends, and told them what the priests and elders said unto them: but they on hearing lifted up their voices with one accord unto the Lord, and said, "Lord, it is You who has made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is;" [Acts 4:24] and the rest which floods lifting up their voices might say, "Wonderful are the hangings of the sea" [Psalm 93:4]. […]
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 13 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
The spiritual meanings are called rivers — and also those men who understand in a spiritual manner — because they have their origin from the Scriptures and are confirmed by the Scriptures, and because, from these spiritual meanings, other meanings are derived. Hence in the …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
11 ), and the floods of ungodly men make the saints afraid, Ps. xviii. We may apply it to the tumults that are sometimes in our own bosoms, through prevailing passions and frights, which put the soul into disorder, and are ready to overthrow its graces and comforts; but, if the Lord reign there, even the winds and seas shall obey him.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
The floods have lifted up, 0 Lord. Men have raged like angry waves of the sea, but vain has been their tumult. Observe that the psalmist turns to the Lord when he sees the billows foam, and hears the breakers roar; he does not waste his breath by talking to the waves, or to violent men; but like Hezekiah he spreads the blasphemies of the wicked before the Lord. The floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
The floods have lifted up, 0 Lord. Men have raged like angry waves of the sea, but vain has been their tumult. Observe that the psalmist turns to the Lord when he sees the billows foam, and hears the breakers roar; he does not waste his breath by talking to the waves, or to violent men; but like Hezekiah he spreads the blasphemies of the wicked before the Lord. The floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. These repetitions are needed for the sake both of the poetry and the music, but they also suggest the frequency and the violence of wicked assaults upon the government of God, and the repeated defeats which they sustain. Sometimes men are furious in words—they lift up their voice, and at other times they rise to acts of violence—they lift up their waves; but the Lord has control over them in either case. The ungodly are all foam and fury, noise and bluster, during their little hour, and then the tide turns or the storm is hushed, and we hear no more of them; while the kingdom of the Eternal abides in the grandeur of its power.
The floods have lifted up - Multitudes of people have confederated against thy people; and troop succeeds troop as the waves of the sea succeed each other.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice - The word here rendered “floods,” means properly rivers, and then it may be applied to any waters. The word voice here refers to the noise of raging waters when they are agitated by the winds, or when they dash on the shore. See the notes at Psa 42:7. The floods lift up their waves - As if they would sweep everything away. The allusion here is to some calamity or danger which might, in its strength and violence, be compared with the wild and raging waves of the ocean. Or if it refers literally to the ocean in a storm, then the psalm may have been the reflections of the author as he stood on the shore of the sea, and saw the waves beat and dash against the shore. To one thus looking upon the billows as they roll in toward the shore, it seems as if they were angry; as if they intended to sweep everything away; as if the rocks of the shore could not resist them. Yet they have their bounds. They spend their strength; they break, and retire as if to recover their force, and then they renew their attack with the same result. But their power is limited. The rocky shore is unmoved. The earth abides. God is over all. His throne is unshaken. No violence of the elements can affect that; and, under his dominion, all is secure.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
The rivers have raised, O Lord This is an expression of a cry and a plaint: Woe, O Lord, behold!
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
More than the voices of great waters, etc. I know that more than the voices of great waters, which roar over us, and more than the mightiest breakers of this sea, You are mighty, O Lord, and Your hand is powerful over them.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| נָשְׂא֤וּ | naseu | they have lifted up | H5375 → | 656 times |
| נְהָר֨וֹת׀ | neharot | rivers | H5104 → | 119 times |
| יְֽהוָ֗ה | yahweh | O Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| נָשְׂא֣וּ | naseu | they have lifted up | H5375 → | 656 times |
| נְהָר֣וֹת | neharot | rivers | H5104 → | 119 times |
| קוֹלָ֑ם | kolam | voice their | H6963 → | 506 times |
| יִשְׂא֖וּ | yisu | they lifted up | H5375 → | 656 times |
| נְהָר֣וֹת | neharot | rivers | H5104 → | 119 times |
| דָּכְיָֽם׃ | dakheyam | pounding their | H1796 → |
נָשְׂא֤וּthey have lifted up
naseuH5375 →656 times
נְהָר֨וֹת׀rivers
neharotH5104 →119 times
יְֽהוָ֗הO Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
נָשְׂא֣וּthey have lifted up
naseuH5375 →656 times
נְהָר֣וֹתrivers
neharotH5104 →119 times
קוֹלָ֑םvoice their
kolamH6963 →506 times
יִשְׂא֖וּthey lifted up
yisuH5375 →656 times
נְהָר֣וֹתrivers
neharotH5104 →119 times
דָּכְיָֽם׃pounding their
dakheyamH1796 →
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
Isaiah 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.
it leads to
- Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- Romans 15:13
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Isaiah 44:23
Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O depths of the earth. Break forth in song, O mountains, you forests and all your trees. For the LORD has…
- Psalms 105:43
He brought forth His people with rejoicing, His chosen with shouts of joy.
- Psalms 96:11–13
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea resound, and all that fills it.
- Galatians 5:22
Through
Psalms 96:11Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea resound, and all that fills it.
it leads to
- Isaiah 49:13
Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; break forth in song, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, and He will have compassion on His afflicted ones.
- Psalms 69:34
Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
- Psalms 98:7–9
Let the sea resound, and all that fills it, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- Isaiah 49:13
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Psalms
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 93; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 13; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jerome, Homily 70, on Psalm 92 (Alternate Series); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.