Psalms
Chapter 124

1

¹ A song of ascents. Of David. I Had not the LORD been with us, let Israel say,

2

Had not the LORD been with us, when people rose against us,

3

They would have swallowed us alive, for their fury blazed against us.

4

The waters would have engulfed us, the torrent overwhelmed us;

5

seething waters would have drowned us.

6

Blessed be the LORD, who did not leave us to be torn by their fangs.

7

We escaped with our lives like a bird from the fowler's snare; the snare was broken and we escaped.

8

² Our help is the name of the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.

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Footnotes

¹ [Psalm 124] A thanksgiving which teaches that Israel's very existence is owed to God who rescues them. In the first part Israel's enemies are compared to the mythic sea dragon (Psalm 124:2b-3a; cf Jeremiah 51:34) and Flood (Psalm 124:3b-5; cf Isaiah 51:9-10). The psalm heightens the malice of human enemies by linking them to the primordial enemies of God's creation. Israel is a bird freed from the trapper's snare (Psalm 124:6-8)--freed originally from Pharaoh and now from the current danger.

² [8] Our help is the name: for the idiom, see Exodus 18:4.

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