Psalms
Chapter 114
This short psalm looks back at the exodus, when God brought Israel out of Egypt. The sea and the Jordan River pulled back, and the mountains and hills shook like leaping animals. The psalm then asks those things why they did it, and answers by pointing to God, who once brought water out of solid rock.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language;
1When Israel left Egypt, when Jacob's family left a people who spoke a foreign language,
"The house of Jacob" means the family and descendants of Jacob, which is another name for the people of Israel.
2Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.
2Judah became the place where God lived among his people, and Israel became the land he ruled.
3The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.
3The sea saw it and ran away. The Jordan River turned back the way it came.
4The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
4The mountains jumped like rams. The little hills jumped like lambs.
5What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?
5What was wrong with you, sea, that you ran away? And you, Jordan, why did you turn back?
"What ailed thee" is old English for "what was the matter with you?" The psalm is asking the sea and the river why they acted the way they did.
6Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs?
6Mountains, why did you jump like rams? Little hills, why did you jump like lambs?
7Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob;
7Shake, earth, because the Lord is here. Shake, because the God of Jacob is here.
8Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.
8He is the one who turned the rock into a pool of water, and hard stone into a flowing spring.
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