Psalm 144:5

From Reconciling understandings of Scripture and Science
Jump to navigationJump to search

BibleOld TestamentPsalms

the heavens (shamayim)

KJV

Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down:
touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
Cast forth lightning, and scatter them:
shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.
Send thine hand from above;
rid me, and deliver me out of great waters,
from the hand of strange children;
Whose mouth speaketh vanity,
and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.


NET Bible

6 O Lord, make the sky sinka and come down!
Touch the mountains and make them smolder!



It is clear that in ancient times the "heavens" (shamayim) were understood in such a way that they could be thought of as bending under pressure, whether literally or as poetical imagery. From the NET Bible notes to v.5:

a tn The Hebrew verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense "to [cause to] bend; to [cause to] bow down." For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that "bends" its shoulder or back under a burden. Here the Lord causes the sky, pictured as a dome or vault, to sink down as he descends in the storm. See Ps 18:9.