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New American Bible

2002 11 11
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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.

 

 



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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