Psalms 55:8

55:8 I will hurry off to a place that is safe

from the strong wind ¹  and the gale.”

Psalms 77:18

77:18 Your thunderous voice was heard in the wind;

the lightning bolts lit up the world;

the earth trembled and shook. ² 

Psalms 78:39

78:39 He remembered ³  that they were made of flesh,

and were like a wind that blows past and does not return. ⁴ 

---

¹ tn Heb “[the] wind [that] sweeps away.” The verb סָעָה (sa’ah, “sweep away”) occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 120).

² tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a preterite or as an imperfect with past progressive force.

sn Verses 16-18 depict the Lord coming in the storm to battle his enemies and subdue the sea. There is no record of such a storm in the historical account of the Red Sea crossing. The language the psalmist uses here is stereotypical and originates in Canaanite myth, where the storm god Baal subdues the sea in his quest for kingship. The psalmist has employed the stereotypical imagery to portray the exodus vividly and at the same time affirm that it is not Baal who subdues the sea, but Yahweh.

³ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive signals a return to the narrative.

⁴ tn Heb “and he remembered that they [were] flesh, a wind [that] goes and does not return.”