Bible Strands
Psalms 114:3
The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses Israel, recounting the Exodus event where God claimed Judah and Israel as His sanctuary and dominion. This declaration occurs at the moment the Red Sea and Jordan River react to God’s presence.
The words — The Hebrew רָאָה (ra'ah) means "it saw," and יִסּוֹב לְאָחוֹר (yisov le'achor) translates literally to "it turned around backwards." These terms describe the physical recoil of the waters.
The thread — This motif of waters fleeing God appears in Exodus 14:21, where a wind drives back the sea, and in Psalms 77:16, where the waters swirl upon seeing Him. Habakkuk 3:8 also references divine wrath against the rivers and sea.
Why it lands — The text commands the reader to recognize that creation physically responds to divine authority. It requires acknowledging that natural order yields to God’s sovereign intervention without offering comfort or warning.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.
Cross-references
- Exodus 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,
- Psalms 77:16 The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and swirled; even the depths were shaken.
- Habakkuk 3:8 Were You angry at the rivers, O LORD? Was Your wrath against the streams? Did You rage against the sea when You rode on Your horses, on Your chariots of salvation?
- Joshua 3:13 When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”
- Isaiah 63:12 who sent His glorious arm to lead them by the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to gain for Himself everlasting renown,
- Habakkuk 3:15 You trampled the sea with Your horses, churning the great waters.
- Exodus 15:8 At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; like a wall the currents stood firm; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
- Psalms 74:15 You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
- Psalms 104:7 At Your rebuke the waters fled; at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away—
- Psalms 106:9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.