Intertextuality Pair

Psalms 114:3 → Psalms 77:16

Allusion

Later text

Psalms 114:3BSB

The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;

Earlier text

Psalms 77:16BSB

The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and swirled; even the depths were shaken.

Significance

Psalm 114:3 declares "The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back" — personifying the waters as terrified witnesses of divine power. Psalm 77:16 uses strikingly similar language: "The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and swirled" (רָאוּךָ מַּיִם, ra'ukha mayim). Both psalms commemorate the Red Sea crossing and the Jordan crossing as cosmic events in which the waters themselves respond to God's theophanic presence. The shared motif of waters "seeing" (רָאָה, ra'ah) the LORD and recoiling transforms historical narrative into hymnic poetry, presenting Israel's deliverance as a cosmic victory over chaotic waters.

Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Longitudinal Theme — the waters that "observed and fled" (Ps 114:3) and the waters that "saw You... and swirled" (Ps 77:16) share the theophanic sea motif (ראה + recoiling waters), one strand of the canonical theme of the LORD's mastery of the waters that runs from the Red Sea through Israel's hymnody to the Lord who commands wind and wave.

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