The Raging Waters in Ps 46:2-4

Introduction

The beginning of Psalm 46 abounds in water images, featuring the heart of deepest sea, raging and foaming waters in vv. 2-4, and a river with streams in v. 5. The Hebrew text of vv. 2-5 (with terms for water bolded) reads as follows:

אֱלֹהִ֣ים לָ֭נוּ מַחֲסֶ֣ה וָעֹ֑ז עֶזְרָ֥ה בְ֝צָר֗וֹת נִמְצָ֥א מְאֹֽד

עַל־כֵּ֣ן לֹא־נִ֭ירָא בְּהָמִ֣יר אָ֑רֶץ וּבְמ֥וֹט הָ֝רִ֗ים בְּלֵ֣ב יַמִּֽים׃

יֶהֱמ֣וּ יֶחְמְר֣וּ מֵימָ֑יו יִֽרְעֲשֽׁוּ־הָרִ֖ים בְּגַאֲוָת֣וֹ סֶֽלָה׃

נָהָ֗ר פְּלָגָ֗יו יְשַׂמְּח֥וּ עִיר־אֱלֹהִ֑ים קְ֝דֹ֗שׁ מִשְׁכְּנֵ֥י עֶלְיֽוֹן׃

These images have led to varied interpretations not only of vv. 2-5 but also of the psalm as a whole. The focus of this exegetical issue page is on the waters in vv. 2-4; the river and its streams are discussed in a separate exegetical issue. The water in vv. 2-4 has been interpreted in three ways:

• Natural catastrophe. Some scholars read vv. 2-4 as a description of a natural catastrophe (e.g., an earthquake in the 8^th c. BCE, with mountains falling into "the heart of the sea").
• Struggle against chaos. Others understand the waters as the waters of chaos as part of the so-called Chaoskampf motif (="struggle against chaos", whereby a deity battles a chaos monster, usually a sea dragon) attested in ancient Near Eastern (ANE) sources and in the Hebrew Bible (HB). This understanding of the Chaoskampf motif in Psalm 46 is variously nuanced. According to some, the earth, not the waters, functions as a monster to be battled and subdued.
• Hostile nations. Still other scholars equate the waters with the hostile nations and kingdoms mentioned later in the psalm (v. 7).

So the questions are: "How do the waters function in Psalm 46?", “What do they represent?”, and "Why does it matter?"

Argument Maps

Option 1: Natural Catastrophe

Some scholars understand these images in a straightforward way, namely that the waters in vv. 2-4 signify a natural cataclysm, i.e., an earthquake and/or volcano eruption, which either has taken place in Israel's past or as something that may theoretically occur at some point. E. Kissane, for example, thinks the image of a natural disaster (an earthquake and volcano eruption) figuratively represents "an extreme peril". K.-M. Bang, in turn, links the symbolism in vv. 2-4 to the earthquake in c. 750 BCE as a possible event which inspired the psalmist. He explains that "A geologist’s description of M 8.0 or greater earthquakes includes major damage to buildings, structures, and even permanent changes to the landscape. This description of M 8.0 or greater earthquakes matches Ps 46:3–4; the earth changes its appearance and parts of mountains fell into the sea (v. 3). Tsunami waves must have roared and covered the sea coast due to the estimated magnitude of that earthquake (v. 4a). The mountains tremble with rising movements (v. 4b)."

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[Natural Catastrophe]: The waters in vv. 2-4 signify a natural disaster (i.e., an earthquake, which produced a series of powerful tidal waves). #dispreferred
 + <Ps 46:3-4 Fits Description of an Earthquake>: The terminology in Ps 46:2-4 fits the description of an earthquake. #dispreferred
  + [Description of an Earthquake]: Psalm 46:3, "… When the earth (or landscape) changes, when the mountains collapse into heart of the seas, (landslide?). (In) v. 4 its waters roar and cover (the land), (tsunami?) and mountains tremble with its rising" (Bang 2017, 86 :A:; Kissane 1953, 202 :C:; cf. Kraus 1988, 461 :C:). #dispreferred
  + <The Lexeme מאד>: Re-vocalized, the word מְאֹד can be read as "from calamity" (Kissane 1953, 204 :C:). #dispreferred
  + <Akkadian Parallel>: There is a possible Akkadian parallel to hamîr that would support the notion of an earthquake, i.e., "mur, whose root meaning may be preserved in its byform mrr 'to break' or 'to split. '#dispreferred
    + [Akkadian Parallels]: 'if the earth is split(?) more than usual (preceded by earthquake omens)' (ACh Adad 20:56)." Cf. CAD M/1 268 (Tsumura 2014, 157, n. 7 :M:). #dispreferred
  + <The Earthquake Imagery and LXX>: The LXX's reading (ἐν τῷ ταράσσεσθαι/"to be agitated, troubled; to be disquieted/restless; to be stirred up"; cf. Pesh) fits the description of an earthquake. MT's v. 3 should be emended to a Niphal of מוּר II, i.e., "to shake" (HALOT 560 s.v. II מור). Cf. NASB, NET, NLT (“So we will not fear when earthquakes come... ”); CSB, CEB (“That’s why we won’t be afraid when the world falls apart...”).  #dispreferred
  <_ <The Psalm's Poetic Fluidity>: The Psalm 46 contains a number of embellishing, intensifying forms (e.g., "seas"=the deepest sea; "the holy dwelling places of”=the holiest (?) dwelling place; "devastations"=great devastation; even the plural of "troubles" could be emphatic, i.e., representing great trouble). So the psalm's poetic fluidity and openness of language should be acknowledged. 
 + <The Earthquake Imagery and the Psalm's Unity>: The earthquake imagery strengthens the unity of and cohesion of the three strophes of Psalm 46. "All three parts of Ps 46 describe an earthquake at approximately 750 BCE and God’s battle against the earth monster behind the earthquake" (Bang 2017, 85 :A:). #dispreferred
 - <Imagery and Unity>: Psalm 46 is part of the Psalms of Zion which are concerned with God's protection of Zion from wars and political instability, not natural catastrophes.
 + <8th c. BCE Earthquake>: The region, which is susceptible to earthquakes, experienced a significant earthquake in the 8th century BCE (c. 760 BCE, +/- 30 years) during the reign of King Uzziah of Judah (Aharoni 1979, 99 :M:; Bang 2017, 68-89 :A:). #dispreferred
  + [Archaeology]: Late Iron Age (Iron IIb) architecture of Israel and Jordan yields evidence for a significant earthquake. “Walls with broken ashlars, walls with displaced rows of stones, walls still standing but leaning or bowed, and walls collapsed with large sections still lying course-on-course” suggest the damage created by an earthquake (Austin, Franz, and Frost 2000, 657 :A:; Bang 2017, 81-82 :A:). #dispreferred

Option 2: Struggle against Chaos

Others interpret the waters in Psalm 46 mythologically, i.e., as the waters of chaos in the Chaoskampf motif. Reading this psalm eschatologically, H. Gunkel, for example, understood the Chaoskampf in it as a later adaptation of the well-established myth. For him, the Psalm speaks of “the arrogant raging sea, which finally takes drastic action against YHWH’s holiness, and which YHWH brings to peace while he proves his unique majesty. The new feature, i.e., that the moment of decision occurs 'toward morning,' agrees closely with the myth in which the sea is associated with the power of darkness.” R.D. Miller, in turn, offers a more sophisticated iteration of the Chaoskampf motif, whereby God, in Psalm 46, battles a number of entities: "War is thus put in parallel with the dragon (and nations) as another foe God defeats. Peace is consequently ensured not only for Jerusalem but for the entire world."

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[Waters of Chaos]: The waters in vv. 2-4 stand for the waters of chaos in the Chaoskampf ("struggle against chaos") motif. #dispreferred
 + <Psalm 46 and the Elohistic Psalter>: Psalm 46 appears in Book II of the Psalter (Pss 42-72), "where there is a concentration of psalms containing elements of the dragon-slaying myth. In point of fact, this concentration extends to the whole of the Elohistic Psalter (Pss 42-83)" (Miller 2018, 165 :M:). #dispreferred
 - <Lack of Internal Evidence>: Within Psalm 46, there are no elements (motifs) explicitly associated with the Chaoskampf (struggle against chaos).
  + <No Creation Themes in Psalm 46>: "There is no clear interest in the originating act of creation, either in the temporal orientation of the hymn, or in its thematic scope..." (Watson 2005, 137 :M:).
   <_<Creation and the Chaoskampf>: The theme of divine combat did not always have a connection with creation (Saggs 1978, 56–63 :M:). #dispreferred
   <_<Creation and the Chaoskampf 1>: The text may not necessarily relate to creation, but contain “a historicization” of a mythological divine conflict with the waters (Day 1985, 120-138 :M:). 
  + <No Engagement between God and the Waters>: In Psalm 46, God does not manipulate the waters in any way (e.g., by separating them) as in creation accounts, and, more importantly, He does not combat them as in the Chaoskampf motif (Watson 2005, 137 :M:).
 + <Chaoskampf and Terminology in Psalm 46>: Psalm 46 deploys terminology associated with the Chaoskampf motif, i.e., the hostile sea, unruly waters, the root צר (Ps 46:2), which is the technical term for chaos (Gunkel 2006, 67, 73 :M:). #dispreferred
  <_<More Explicit Imagery in Other Texts>: Compared to other texts, the Chaoskampf imagery of Psalm 46 is not as explicit.
   + [Psalm 74]: Chaoskampf: "You divided the sea by your strength; you broke the heads of the dragons of the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness" (vv. 13-14). Creation: "You cut openings for spring and wadi; you dried up ever-flowing rivers. Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun. You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you have made summer and winter" (vv. 15-17).
   + [Isaiah 51]: "Was it not you \[the arm of the Lord\] that cut Rahab in pieces, that pierced the dragon? Was it not you that dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; That made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?" (vv. 9b-10).
 + <The Scope of Conflict in Psalm 46>: In Psalm 46, the conflict is cosmic in scope, that is "He makes wars cease to the end of the earth" (v. 10) and "He utters his voice, the earth melts" (v. 7, wherein God chooses "the storm" as the mode of his intervention) (Day 1985, 121 :M:). #dispreferred
   <_ <A Reworked Chaoskampf in Psalm 46>: The correlation of the psalm's motifs and terminology points to a "historicization" of the Chaoskampf motif in it (Day 1985, 121 :M:; cf. ibid. 125-127 on the Völkerkampf motif, i.e., the battle with the nation, which was originally distinct from Chaoskampf in scholarship).
    + [Psalm 48]: In several Psalms, the Chaoskampf is reworked to depict the protection of Zion from other nations, not the primordial chaos. E.g., Psalm 48, wherein God protects Zion from wars and political instability, by destroying hostile nations "like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind" (v. 7). 
    

Option 2b: Struggle against Chaos (the earth as monster)

Notably, the presence of the Chaoskampf motif in Psalm 46 finds an intriguing variant reading, whereby the earth, not the raging waters, is seen as a monster to battle and conquer. Thus, most recently, K.-M. Bang has argued that "Ancient belief saw this earth monster as behind the earthquakes and drought seasons. This reading of ארץ as the earth monster is not too strange in the biblical world. In the Hebrew Bible, the sea (ים) often means the sea monster or Canaanite deity Yamm. Like the sea, the Earth (ארץ vv. 7 and 9) can allude to the earth monster."

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[Earth as Monster]: The earth in Ps 46:7, 9, 10 signifies a monster as part of the Chaoskampf ("struggle against chaos") motif. #dispreferred
 + <The Earthquake=Earth Monster in Psalm 46>: The earthquake in Ps 46:3-4 (see argument map 1) would have been understood in terms of or as caused by an earth monster (cf. Bang 2017, 88 :A:). #dispreferred
 + <The Earth as a Defeated Monster in Psalm 46>: Psalm 46 speaks of the earth melting (v. 7); of God bringing great devastation in the earth (v. 9); of wars being terminated to the ends of the earth (v. 10). These references speak of the earth as a monster, whom God defeats (cf. Bang 2017, 88 :A:; Wakeman 1969, 313-320 :A:; Wakeman 1973, 106-117 :M:). #dispreferred
  - <Lack of Internal Evidence>: Psalm 46 does not support the reading of "the earth" as a monster conquered in the manner of mythological forces. 
   + <Destruction of Weaponry>: In Psalm 46, the weapons God destroys (v. 10) are the implements of war which are traditionally used by human and divine warriors. They do not appear with the earth.
   + <Destruction of Weapons as A Common Motif>: The destruction of weapons in war is a common ANE and HB motif; it is not exclusively specific to the Chaoskampf (cf. Josh 11:6, 9; Hos 2:20; Isa 2:2-4; 9:4; Mic 4:1-4; Sefire IA.38–39; Esarhaddon 9–10; Miller 2010, 221, n. 32 :A:).  
   + <"Devastation" in Psalm 46>: In Psalm 46, God brings about great "devastation"/שַׁמּוֹת in the earth. Elsewhere, this rhetoric usually represents the cessation of urban (human) communities, not the earth (planet) itself.
    + ["Devastation" in HB]: E.g., the desolate cities in Isa 54:3; desolate lands and cities in Ezek 29:12; desolate lands and cities in Ezek 30:7, etc. 
    + <"Devastation" in "the Earth" in Psalm 46>: "The earth" in v. 9 can be taken as "the land" (i.e., "a specific region, area, country, or plot of land"; SDBH). 
   + <The Rhetoric of "Melting">: In Psalm 46, "the earth" is said "to melt". The "melting" of various entities (including the earth) usually appears as a response to God in theophanies and the Holy War texts, wherein God engages human opponents. In Chaoskampf traditions, God's opponents are "split", "pierced", "cut" (and otherwise subdued; Isa 51:9-10); their heads are "crushed" (e.g., Ps 74:12-15); they "flee" (cf. Isa 27:1), etc.
    + [Destructive Theophanies]: "The Lord, the Lord Almighty—he touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn the whole land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river of Egypt; he builds his lofty palace in the heavens and sets its foundation on the earth; he calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land—the Lord is his name" (Amos 9:5-6; cf. Amos 9:1-6).
     <_<Amos 9 and Chaoskampf>: Amos 9 is also linked to the Chaoskampf motif (Gunkel 2006, 52–53 :M:). #dispreferred
      <_<Chaoskampf in Amos 9>: Amos 9 is linked to the Chaoskampf motif, not because of the "melting" of the earth, but due to the feature of a sea serpent in v. 2 (Gunkel 2006, 52–53 :M:).
 + <The Earth Monster in HB>: As in Ugaritic literature, the "earth" in HB can be seen as a monster, who swallows individuals alive or trembles in the presence of the Lord (Exod 15:12; Numb 16:32; Pss 46:7; 114:7, etc.; cf. Wakeman 1969, 313-320 :A:; Wakeman 1973, 106-117 :M:; Bang 2017, 88 :A:). #dispreferred
  + [The God Mot and the Underworld/Earth in Ugarit]: The deity Mot appears in parallel to the "underworld"/"earth"/'arṣ into which individuals descend, and so the two can be viewed as synonymous entities (e.g., UT 66:ii:2f.) (Wakeman 1969, 313-320 :A:; Wakeman 1973, 106-117 :M:). #dispreferred
  - <No Evidence for The Earth Monster>: The Earth Monster hypothesis (cf. Wakeman 1969, 313-320 :A:; Wakeman 1973, 106-117 :M:; Bang 2017, 88 :A:) is based on a misreading of Ugaritic evidence (Day 1985, 84-87 :M:).
   + [No Earth Monster in Ugaritic Mythology]: The word 'arṣ does not appear in parallel with the name of god Mot. Hence, it is not another name for this deity (Day 1985, 84 :M:). Another creature, misidentified as an earth monster, is Arš/El's calf Atik, but his habitat is in the sea alongside tnn (the dragon) (CTA 6.VI.50=KTU 1.6.VI.51; Day 1985, 84-85 :M:). 
 - <Chaoskampf in HB (and Beyond)>: In the broader context of the Hebrew Bible, the Chaoskampf motif includes God battling "watery" enemies (either sea monsters and/or the primeval sea) and not "the earth” (cf. Day 1985, 85 :M:).
  + [The Sea in the Biblical (and Extrabiblical) Chaoskampf]: The sea God battles in primeval times (Ps 104:5–9; Job 38:8–11; Prov 8:22–31; Jer 5:22b, 31:5; Pss 33:6; 65:7; Sir 43:(25)23; PrMan 2–4; Isa 50:2b) and at the end of time (Isa 17:12–14; Hab 3:8; Nah 1:4; Ps 18:16–18; 93:3; 77:17; 106:9; Isa 59:15–20) (Gunkel 2006, 61–75 :M:).
  + [Sea Monsters in the Biblical Chaoskampf]: The entities God battles in HB and elsewhere include various mythological sea monsters (e.g., Rahab: Isa 51:6; Ps 89:10–14; Job 26:12, 9:13; Ps 87:4; Isa 30:7; Ps 40:5; Leviathan: Ps 74:12–19, Isa 27:1; Job 40:25–41:26; Ps 104:25; Job 3:8; Behemoth: Job 40:19–24; 1En 60:7–9; 4Ez 6:49–52; Isa 30:6; Ps 68:31; the Sea dragon: Job 7:12; Ps 44:22; Ezek 29:3–6a, 32:2–7; Jer 51:34, 36, 42; PsSol 2:28b–34; the Serpent: Amos 9:2) (Gunkel 2006, 22–61 :M:).

Option 3: Hostile Nations (preferred)

A significant number of scholars equate the surging waters in Ps 46:2-4 with the hostile nations and kingdoms appearing in Ps 46:7. Thus for example, W. Brown argues that in this Psalm, the cosmic/natural forces such as the raging waters and quaking mountains are “mapped” onto the turbulence and instability experienced in the political realm. Hence, on a metaphoric level, the image of raging, foaming waters signifies the raging, hostile nations. Such correlation between the two has been further identified as part of a motif called either "the inviolability of Zion" or "the conflict with the nations". In Psalm 46, "it is clear that the divine conflict with the nations attacking Zion is represented as a historicization of the mythological divine conflict with the waters."

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[Hostile Nations]: The raging waters (vv. 2-4) stand for the hostile nations and kingdoms (v. 7). 
 - <Waters of Chaos>: Raging waters are usually associated with chaos in the Chaoskampf ("struggle against chaos") motif. #dispreferred
  <_ <Chaoskampf Historicized in the Hebrew Bible>: In the HB, Chaoskampf is adapted to speak of political crises, whereby nations are equated with sea monsters or waters as part of a motif(s) called "the conflict with the nations" and "the inviolability of Zion" (Day 1985, 120-121, 125-138 :M:).
   + <Nations and Water Imagery in the Psalter>: “The congruence of the waters and the psalmist’s enemies which is manifested in this composition is also already familiar from Ps. 124, where the foes are presented as the life-threatening forces of Sheol, from which Yahweh has delivered his grateful servant (Ps. 124; cf. Ps. 18:4-5, 15-18). A very similar pattern may also be discerned in Ps. 144, where a more direct correlation is drawn between the enemies and the waters” (Watson 2005, 137).
    + [Mythic Sea Monsters As Nations in the Psalter]: E.g., Rahab is identified as Egypt (Ps 89:10–14; Ps 87:4). Cf. Rahab as Egypt (Isa 51:6, 9–10; Isa 30:7); the Sea Dragon/Crocodile as Egypt (Ezek 29:3–6a; 32:2–7; Jer 51:34, 36, 42).
   + [Nations as Mighty Waters in the Prophets]: Isaiah 17, for example, speaks of Assyria as peoples who will "thunder like the thundering of the sea" and will roar like the roaring of mighty waters (v. 12; cf. v. 13; Day sees a historicized Chaoskampf in Isaiah 17 and Psalm 46; Day 1985, 102-103 :M:). Cf. Assyria's representation in Isa 5:30; 8:7-8. 
   + <Kingdoms as Mountains in the Prophets>: As in Ps 46:3-4, nations and kingdoms can be metaphorized as mountains in HB prophets. 
    + [Babylon as a Mountain in Jer 51:25]: "'I am against you, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,' declares the Lord. 'I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain'" (Jer 51:25). 
  <_ <Chaoskampf Historicized in ANE>: Nature (mighty waters and floods) and nations at war are closely associated in ANE propagandistic literature. E.g., many ANE traditions draw from the creation epic Enuma Elish to speak of kings at war (Crouch 2009, 23–28 :M:; O’Kelly 2024, 374 :A:).  
   + [Neo-Assyrian Royal Inscriptions]: In the royal annals, the simile “like a flood” often signifies conquests of foreign cities by various Assyrian kings (e.g., Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal; cf. Ezekiel 26 and 27, wherein Tyre's foe is cast as a flood; Ezek 26:3; 27:7; cf. Nah 1:8). 
   + [Chaoskampf in Sennacherib's Bavian Inscription]: In the Bavian Inscription (RINAP 223), "the conquered city \[Babylon\] is not only razed to the ground, but flooded—that is, it is symbolically un-created, as the city and the land on which it stood are returned to their original cosmological state" (Wright 1915, 161-162).  
 + <The Waters and Nations in Psalm 46>: The two strophes (vv. 2-4 and 5-7) are linguistically correlated, calling for the identification of the waters with the nations.
  + [Identical Terminology]: Identical verbs are used to describe the waters and the nations. Just as in vv. 3–4, the waters rage (חמה) and mountains move/fall (מוט), in v. 7, the nations rage (חמה) and the kingdoms move/fall (מוט) (Watson 2005, 135-137 :M:). Also, the root חמה is often used "to depict the raging or roaring of the 'sea, water, waves' (Isa 17:12, 51:15; Jer 5:22, 6:23, 31:35, 50:42, 51:55) and the 'nations, enemies, and so on' (Ps 8:2; 1 Kgs 1:41; Isa 22:2; etc.)" (Tsumura 2014, 162 :M:). 
 + <A Historicized Chaoskampf and Urbicide Texts>: With a reworked Chaoskampf, Psalm 46 also echoes HB and ANE urbicide texs, i.e., traditions which feature the practice of urbicide - the ritualized killing of cities (Wright 2015, 147-166 :A:). Some of these traditions contain the Chaoskampf motif.    
 + <Psalm 46 and Urbicide Texts>: In Psalm 46, God brings about great "devastation"/שַׁמּוֹת in the earth. Elsewhere, this rhetoric usually represents the cessation of urban (human) communities and is part of the "urbicide" motif. 
  + ["Devastation" in HB]: E.g., the desolate cities in Isa 54:3; desolate lands and cities in Ezek 29:12; desolate lands and cities in Ezek 30:7, etc. In Joshua 8, Joshua burns the city of Ai, turning it into “an eternal tell of desolation (tēl ʿôlām šĕmāmâ), as it is to this day”  (Wright 2015, 153 :A:). 
 + <Wine-Related Imagery and Warfare>: The actions of waters are represented with terms related to the production of wine and beer (i.e., foaming and raging \[Tsumura 1985, 167-175 :A:]\). In HB, viticultural imagery is used to represent war (e.g., Isa 63:3). If the waters in Ps 46:3-4 are compared to fermenting wine, anticipating the raging/foaming nations, then God's engagement with the latter represents a variation on the imagery of Isa 63:3, or a more advanced stage in military action.
  + [Wine-Related Imagery and Warfare]: For the nexus of divine judgement through military action and intoxication, see, among others, Zech 12:2a (which is also linked to an adapted Chaoskampf motif) and Isa 29:9.

Conclusion

Although seeing the raging waters in Ps 46:2-4 as a description of a natural disaster (Option 1) and as the so-called Chaoskampf motif (Options 2 and 2b) is legitimate, Option 3 should be preferred. In fact, the views in Options 1, 2, and 2b often point to other interpretive possibilities or are presented as a combination of two or more interpretive choices. All in all, the chaotic waters in vv. 2-4 are best understood as signifying the hostile human forces (nations and kingdoms) in v. 7 as a historicization of the divine conflict motif. The correlation of the two has both internal and external support.

• Internally, within Psalm 46, the two strophes (vv. 2-4 and 5-7) containing the pertinent elements (the waters in Strophe 1 and the nations in Strophe 2) are closely correlated linguistically and thematically.
• External support comes from biblical and extra-biblical sources which feature a reworked Chaoskampf motif, whereby human enemy forces, more specifically foreign armies and kings, are metaphorized as water-related natural phenomena, particularly floods.

Given the evidence presented above, the hostile nations (v. 7) should be correlated with the water symbolism in the opening strophe of the psalm.

Research

Secondary Literature

Amzalag, Nisim. 2015. "The Cryptic Theme of Psalm 46 and the Theology of the Korahites." Revue Biblique 122: 26-45

Annus, Amar. 2002. The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia. SAA 14; Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

Austin, Steven A., Gordon W. Franz, and Eric G. Frost. 2000. “Amos’s Earthquake: An Extraordinary Middle East Seismic Event of 750 B.C.” International Geology Review 42: 657–671.

Bang, Ki-Min. 2017. "A Missing Key to Understanding Psalm 46: Revisiting the Chaoskampf." Conversations with the Biblical World 37: 68–89.

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