תהלים 104:3

Hebrew Modern Translation

המקרה במים עליותיו השם עבים רכובו המהלך על כנפי רוח׃

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Aleppo Codex
במים עליותיו השם-עבים רכובו המהלך על-כנפי-רוח

Biblia Hebrica Stuttgartensia (1967/77)
הַ֥מְקָרֶֽה בַמַּ֗יִם עֲֽלִיֹּ֫ותָ֥יו הַשָּׂם־עָבִ֥ים רְכוּבֹ֑ו הַֽ֝מְהַלֵּ֗ךְ עַל־כַּנְפֵי־רֽוּחַ ׃

Westminster Leningrad Codex
הַמְקָרֶֽה בַמַּיִם עֲ‍ֽלִיּוֹתָיו הַשָּׂם־עָבִים רְכוּבוֹ הַֽמְהַלֵּךְ עַל־כַּנְפֵי־רֽוּחַ ׃

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Who layeth: Psalms 18:10, Psalms 18:11, Amos 9:6

maketh: Isaiah 19:1, Matthew 26:64, Revelation 1:7

walketh: Psalms 18:10, Psalms 139:9, 2 Samuel 22:11, Nahum 1:3

Reciprocal: Genesis 1:9 - General Deuteronomy 33:26 - rideth 2 Samuel 22:10 - darkness 2 Kings 2:11 - General 2 Kings 6:17 - full of horses Job 9:8 - Which Job 9:9 - General Job 30:22 - to ride Job 36:29 - the spreadings Job 37:9 - south Job 37:16 - the balancings Psalms 29:3 - many waters Psalms 65:11 - thy paths Psalms 68:4 - rideth Psalms 68:33 - rideth Psalms 104:13 - his chambers Psalms 136:6 - General Psalms 148:4 - waters Isaiah 40:12 - measured Ezekiel 1:4 - a great Daniel 7:9 - and his wheels Habakkuk 3:8 - ride Zechariah 6:5 - These Matthew 14:25 - walking Mark 6:48 - he cometh Revelation 10:1 - clothed

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters,.... Or "his upper rooms" i; one story over another being built by him in the heavens, Amos 9:6, the chambers where he resides; his courts, as the Targum; his palace and apartments, his presence chamber particularly, the floor and beams of them are the waters bound up in the thick clouds; or the region of the air, from whence the rain descends to water the hills, as in Psalms 104:13.

Who maketh the clouds his chariot; to ride in; in these sometimes Jehovah rides to execute judgment on his enemies, Isaiah 19:1 and in these sometimes he appears in a way of grace and mercy to his people,

Exodus 13:21, in these, as in chariots, Christ went up to heaven; and in these will he come a second time; and into these will the saints be caught up to meet the Lord in the air at his coming, Acts 1:9.

Who walketh upon the wings of the wind; see Psalms 18:10 which is expressive of his swiftness in coming to help and assist his people in time of need; who helps, and that right early; and may very well be applied both to the first and second coming of Christ, who came leaping upon the mountains, and skipping upon the hills, when he first came; and, when he comes a second time, will be as a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices, Song of Solomon 2:8. The Targum is,

"upon the swift clouds, like the wings of an eagle;''

hence, perhaps, it is, the Heathens have a notion of Jupiter's being carried in a chariot through the air, when it thunders and lightens k.

i עליותיו, υπερωα, Sept. "coenacula sua superiora", Gejerus; so Michaelis. k Vid. Horat. Camin. l. 1. Ode 34. v. 5. "Namque diespiter", &c. Et. Ode 12. v. 58. "Tu gravi curru quaties Olympum".

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters - The word here rendered “layeth” - from קרה qârâh - means properly to meet; then, in Hiphil, to cause to meet, or to fit into each other, as beams or joists do in a dwelling. It is a word which would be properly applied to the construction of a house, and to the right adjustment of the different materials employed in building it. The word rendered “beams” - עליה ‛ălı̂yâh - means “an upper chamber, a loft,” such as rises, in Oriental houses, above the flat roof; in the New Testament, the ὑπερῷον huperōon, rendered “upper room,” Acts 1:13; Acts 9:37, Acts 9:39; Acts 20:8. It refers here to the chamber - the exalted abode of God - as if raised above all other edifices, or above the world. The word “waters” here refers to the description of the creation in Genesis 1:6-7 - the waters “above the firmament,” and the waters “below the firmament.” The allusion here is to the waters above the firmament; and the meaning is, that God had constructed the place of his own abode - the room where he dwelt - in those waters; that is, in the most exalted place in the universe. It does not mean that he made it of the waters, but that his home - his dwelling-place - was in or above those waters, as if he had built his dwelling not on solid earth or rock, but in the waters, giving stability to that which seems to have no stability, and making the very waters a foundation for the structure of his abode.

Who maketh the clouds his chariot - Who rides on the clouds as in a chariot. See the notes at Isaiah 19:1. Compare the notes at Psalms 18:11.

Who walketh upon the wings of the wind - See the notes at Psalms 18:10.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 104:3. המקרה במים עליותיו hamekareh bammayim aliyothaiv.

"Laying the beams of his chambers in the waters."

The sacred writer expresses the wonderful nature of the air aptly, and regularly constructed, from various and flux elements, into one continued and stable series, by a metaphor drawn from the singular formation of the tabernacle, which, consisting of many and different parts, and easily reparable when there was need, was kept together by a perpetual juncture and contignation of them all together. The poet goes on: -

השם עבים רכובו hassem abim rechubo,

המהלך על כנפי רוה hamehallech al canphey ruach.

"Making the clouds his chariot,

Walking upon the wings of the wind."

He had first expressed an image of the Divine Majesty, such as it resided in the holy of holies, discernible by a certain investiture of the most splendid light; he now denotes the same from that light of itself which the Divine Majesty exhibited, when it moved together with the ark, sitting on a circumambient cloud, and carried on high through the air. That seat of the Divine Presence is even called by the sacred historians, as its proper name, המרכבה hammercabah, THE CHARIOT.