Bible Strands
Psalms 124:4
then the floods would have engulfed us, then the torrent would have overwhelmed us,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker, using the first-person plural, addresses a community by recounting a past moment of imminent destruction that was narrowly avoided.
The words — The term אֲ֭זַי ('A.zai) marks a conditional sequence, while נַפְשֵֽׁ֖נוּ (nafshe.nu) literally denotes the speaker’s own self or life, grounding the threat in personal survival.
The thread — The text states that engulfing waters threaten the self in Psalms 69:15, and Revelation 12:15 and Revelation 17:15 record waters used to overtake a figure or symbolize multitudes and nations.
Why it lands — The verse states that survival required averted judgment, requiring the reader to acknowledge that deliverance occurred precisely where human resistance would have failed.
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
Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:
Cross-references
- Psalms 69:15 Do not let the floods engulf me or the depths swallow me up; let not the Pit close its mouth over me.
- Revelation 17:15 Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
- Revelation 12:15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away in the torrent.
- Psalms 32:6 Therefore let all the godly pray to You while You may be found. Surely when great waters rise, they will not come near.
- Psalms 69:2 I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.
- Isaiah 8:7 the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and overrun its banks.
- Isaiah 59:19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD where the sun sets, and His glory where it rises. For He will come like a raging flood, driven by the breath of the LORD.
- Jeremiah 46:7 Who is this, rising like the Nile, like rivers whose waters churn?
- Job 22:11 it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
- Psalms 18:4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.