Psalms 42:7

Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of the water spouts,.... By which are meant afflictions, comparable to the deep waters of the sea, for their multitude and overwhelming nature; see Psalms 69:1;

Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

Deep calleth unto deep, i.e. one affliction comes immediately after another, as if it were called for and invited by the former; which he expresseth by a metaphor taken either, 1. From the old flood, when the upper deep, or abyss of waters, (in the clouds,) called the lower deep, or abyss of waters in the sea and rivers, that both might unite their forces together to drown the world. And thus the Chaldee understands it. Or, 2. From the sea, when its waves rage, and it is full of deep furrows, into which ships and passengers sink down, and then rise and sink again, successively and continually. But these tempests are caused in the sea by God’ s mighty winds, rather than by his water-spouts. Or, 3. From violent and successive showers of rain; which frequently come down from heaven, as it were, at the noise or call of God’ s water-spouts, to wit, the clouds; which by their rattling noises and terrible thunders do in a manner invite and call forth the showers which are contained in their bowels. All thy waves and thy billows; thou hast sent one sharp trial or affliction upon me after another. Are gone over me, i.e. are gone over my head, as this same verb is used, . They do not lightly sprinkle me, but almost overwhelm me.

Psalms 42:7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.Ver. 7. Deep calleth unto deep] Vorago voraginem advocat, i.e. one calamity inviteth another, Gurges gurgitem excipit (Beza); Aliud ex alio malure, they come thick and threefold; the clouds return after the rain, Ecclesiastes 12:2; as one shower is unburdened another is brewed. One affliction followeth and occasioneth another, without ceasing or intermission; so that they are grown, as it were, to an infiniteness, as Psalms 40:12. At the noise of thy waterspouts] i.e. Thy clouds pouring down in full force, in a storm at sea especially, by a cataclysm of waters falling at once out of the clouds, sometimes to the overwhelming and breaking of a ship. This mariners call a spout. Psalms 18:4, The floods of Belial made me afraid. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me] Fluctus fluctum trudit; yet not without the Lord; the enemies and the evils that befell him are called God’ s waves or breakings, Propter peccata nostra a te immissa You have been against us on account of our sins. (Kimchi).

(7) Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts.—Better, Flood calleth unto flood at the noise of thy cataracts. The exile is describing what was before his eyes, and in his ears. There can, therefore, be little doubt that, as Dean Stanley observed, this image was furnished by the windings and rapids of the Jordan, each hurrying to dash itself with yet fiercer vehemence of sounding water over some opposing ledge of rocks “in cataract after cataract to the sea.” Thus every step taken on that sorrowful journey offered an emblem of the griefs accumulating on the exile’s heart. The word rendered waterspout only occurs besides in 2 Samuel 5:8, where the Authorised Version has “gutter,” but might translate “watercourse.” All thy waves and thy billows.—From derivation, breakers and rollers. The poet forgets the source of his image in its intensity, and from the thought of the cataract of woes passes on to the more general one of “a sea of troubles,” the waves of which break upon him or roll over his head. The image is common in all poetry. (Comp. “And as a sea of ills urges on its waves; one falling, another, with huge (literally, third) crest, rising.”—Æsch., Seven against Thebes, 759.)

Verse 7. Deep calleth unto deep] One wave of sorrow rolls on me, impelled by another. There is something dismal in the sound of the original; תהום אל תהום קורא tehom el tehom kore; something like "And hollow howlings hung in air." Thompson's Ellenore. Or like Homer's well known verse:- Βηδ' ακεωνπαραθιναπολυφοισβοιοθαλασσης. "He went silently along the shore of the vastly-sounding sea." Il. i., ver. 34. The rolling up of the waves into a swell, and the break of the top of the swell, and its dash upon the shore, are surprisingly represented in the sound of the two last words. The psalmist seems to represent himself as cast away at sea; and by wave impelling wave, is carried to a rock, around which the surges dash in all directions, forming hollow sounds in the creeks and caverns. At last, several waves breaking over him, tear him away from that rock to which he clung, and where he had a little before found a resting-place, and, apparently, an escape from danger. "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me;" he is then whelmed in the deep, and God alone can save him. Waterspouts] A large tube formed of clouds by means of the electric fluid, the base being uppermost, and the point of the tube let down perpendicularly from the clouds. This tube has a particular kind of circular motion at the point; and being hollow within, attracts vast quantities of water, which it pours down in torrents upon the earth. These spouts are frequent on the coast of Syria; and Dr. Shaw has often seen them at Mount Carmel. No doubt the psalmist had often seen them also, and the ravages made by them. I have seen vast gullies cut out of the sides of mountains by the fall of waterspouts, and have seen many of them in their fullest activity.

7. at the noise of thy waterspouts] Better, in the roar of thy cataracts. God is sending upon him one trouble after another. He is overwhelmed with a flood of misfortunes. The metaphorical language is derived from the surrounding scenery. The roar of the cataracts calling to one another from opposite sides of the valley is like the voice of one abyss of waters (Psalms 33:7 note) summoning another to break forth and join in overwhelming him. The torrents and eddies of the Jordan suggest the breakers and waves of calamity which have gone over his head. Tristram in describing Banias speaks of “the impetuous stream which has hewn out its channel in the black basalt,” and of the “wild medley of cascades and dashing torrents” everywhere (Land of Israel, p. 573). According to Robinson (Researches, iii. 405) “in the rainy season, and at the time of the melting of the snow on Hermon, an immense volume of water must rush down the chasm” below the ridge on which the castle stands. It might be supposed that the figure of breakers and waves must have been suggested by the sea, but no one who has seen mountain streams in spate will doubt that the words might refer to the Jordan in flood. The winter rainfall in Palestine is enormous. See Tristram’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 31. Psalms 42:7 b is borrowed in Jonah’s prayer (Jonah 2:3).

Deep calleth unto deep - The language used here would seem to imply that the psalmist was near some floods of water, some rapid river or water-fall, which constituted an appropriate illustration of

7. Waterspouts—The word naturally refers us to a water fall, or cataract; the idea is that of noisy, rushing waters, which call or echo to each other.