Psalm 114:3
New International Version
The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back;

New Living Translation
The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of their way! The water of the Jordan River turned away.

English Standard Version
The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.

Berean Standard Bible
The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;

King James Bible
The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.

New King James Version
The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back.

New American Standard Bible
The sea looked and fled; The Jordan turned back.

NASB 1995
The sea looked and fled; The Jordan turned back.

NASB 1977
The sea looked and fled; The Jordan turned back.

Legacy Standard Bible
The sea looked and fled; The Jordan turned back.

Amplified Bible
The [Red] Sea looked and fled; The Jordan turned back.

Christian Standard Bible
The sea looked and fled; the Jordan turned back.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
The sea looked and fled; the Jordan turned back.

American Standard Version
The sea saw it, and fled; The Jordan was driven back.

Contemporary English Version
When the sea looked at God, it ran away, and the Jordan River flowed upstream.

English Revised Version
The sea saw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The Red Sea looked at this and ran away. The Jordan River turned back.

Good News Translation
The Red Sea looked and ran away; the Jordan River stopped flowing.

International Standard Version
The sea saw this and fled, the Jordan River ran backwards,

Majority Standard Bible
The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;

NET Bible
The sea looked and fled; the Jordan River turned back.

New Heart English Bible
The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.

Webster's Bible Translation
The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.

World English Bible
The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
The sea has seen, and flees, "" The Jordan turns backward.

Young's Literal Translation
The sea hath seen, and fleeth, The Jordan turneth backward.

Smith's Literal Translation
The sea saw and it will flee: Jordan will turn away back.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
The sea saw and fled: Jordan was turned back.

Catholic Public Domain Version
The sea looked, and it fled. The Jordan was turned back again.

New American Bible
The sea saw and fled; the Jordan turned back.

New Revised Standard Version
The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
The sea saw it and fled; Jordan was driven back.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
The Sea saw him and fled and Jordan turned its backside!
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
The sea saw it, and fled; The Jordan turned backward.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
The sea saw and fled: Jordan was turned back.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Tremble at the Presence of the LORD
2Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. 3The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back; 4the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.…

Cross References
Exodus 14:21-22
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided, / and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on their right and on their left.

Joshua 3:13-17
When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.” / So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them. / Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, ...

Isaiah 43:16
Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the surging waters,

Isaiah 51:10
Was it not You who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea for the redeemed to cross over?

Isaiah 63:12-13
who sent His glorious arm to lead them by the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to gain for Himself everlasting renown, / who led them through the depths like a horse in the wilderness, so that they did not stumble?

Habakkuk 3:8
Were You angry at the rivers, O LORD? Was Your wrath against the streams? Did You rage against the sea when You rode on Your horses, on Your chariots of salvation?

Habakkuk 3:15
You trampled the sea with Your horses, churning the great waters.

Psalm 66:6
He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the waters on foot; there we rejoiced in Him.

Psalm 77:16-19
The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and swirled; even the depths were shaken. / The clouds poured down water; the skies resounded with thunder; Your arrows flashed back and forth. / Your thunder resounded in the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. ...

Psalm 136:13-14
He divided the Red Sea in two His loving devotion endures forever. / and led Israel through the midst, His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalm 74:15
You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.

Psalm 106:9
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.

1 Corinthians 10:1-2
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea. / They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

Hebrews 11:29
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were drowned.

Revelation 15:3
and they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!


Treasury of Scripture

The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.

sea

Psalm 77:16
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.

Psalm 104:7
At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.

Psalm 106:9
He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.

Jordan

Psalm 74:15
Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.

Joshua 3:13-16
And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap…

Habakkuk 3:9
Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.

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Psalm 114
1. The miracles wrought by God, when he brought his people out of Egypt,
7. are a just ground of fearing him.














The sea observed and fled
The phrase "The sea observed and fled" refers to the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, a pivotal event in the Exodus narrative. The Hebrew word for "sea" here is "יָם" (yam), which specifically denotes a large body of water, often used in the Old Testament to describe the Red Sea. The verb "fled" is derived from the Hebrew "נוּס" (nus), meaning to flee or escape. This imagery evokes the power and majesty of God, who commands even the natural elements. Historically, this event is a cornerstone of Jewish identity, symbolizing deliverance from bondage and the beginning of a journey toward the Promised Land. Theologically, it underscores God's sovereignty and His ability to intervene in human history in miraculous ways. For Christians, this event prefigures the deliverance from sin through Christ, emphasizing that God makes a way where there seems to be none.

the Jordan turned back
The phrase "the Jordan turned back" refers to another miraculous event during the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land, specifically when they crossed the Jordan River on dry ground as described in Joshua 3. The Hebrew word for "Jordan" is "יַרְדֵּן" (Yarden), which means "descender," aptly named for its descent from the mountains to the Dead Sea. The verb "turned back" comes from "סוּב" (suv), meaning to turn or retreat. This event, like the parting of the Red Sea, signifies God's direct intervention and His faithfulness in fulfilling His promises. Archaeologically, the Jordan River has been a critical geographical feature in the region, and its crossing marked the transition from wilderness wandering to entering the land God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. Spiritually, this crossing represents a passage from the old life into a new life of promise and blessing, akin to the Christian experience of baptism and the new life in Christ. It serves as a reminder of God's unchanging nature and His commitment to lead His people into their divine inheritance.

(3) Fled.--The Authorised Version weakens the effect by rendering "it was driven back." (See Joshua 3:16.) The scene presented is of the "descending stream" (the words employed seem to have a special reference to that peculiar and most significant name of the "Jordan") not parted asunder, as we generally fancy, but, as the psalm expresses it, "turned backwards" (Stanley, Jewish Church, i. 229).

Verse 3. - The sea saw it, and fled. "The sea" is the Red Sea. It "looked," and saw God leading his people (Exodus 14:19-24), and then at once "fled," and left a dry channel as "a way for the ransomed to pass over." Jordan (literally, the Jordan) was driven back (comp. Joshua 3:13-17). These two marvels "marked respectively the beginning and the end of Israel's long journey" (Cheyne). They were parallel facts, and are naturally alluded to together (comp. Habakkuk 3:8).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
The sea
הַיָּ֣ם (hay·yām)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3220: A sea, the Mediterranean Sea, large river, an artifical basin

observed
רָ֭אָה (rā·’āh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7200: To see

and fled;
וַיָּנֹ֑ס (way·yā·nōs)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5127: To flit, vanish away

the Jordan
הַ֝יַּרְדֵּ֗ן (hay·yar·dên)
Article | Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 3383: Jordan -- the principal river of Palestine

turned
יִסֹּ֥ב (yis·sōḇ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5437: To turn about, go around, surround

back;
לְאָחֽוֹר׃ (lə·’ā·ḥō·wr)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 268: The hinder part, behind, backward, the West


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OT Poetry: Psalm 114:3 The sea saw it and fled (Psalm Ps Psa.)
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