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Contemporary English Version

Psalms 18:11

Darkness was your robe; thunderclouds filled the sky, hiding you from sight.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Darkness;   God;   God Continued...;   Meteorology and Celestial Phenomena;   Readings, Select;   Symbols and Similitudes;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Clouds;   Fire;   Psalms, the Book of;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Cloud, Cloud of the Lord;   Darkness;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Cloud;   Heaven;   Pavilion;   Tent;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Pavilion;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Angel;   Apocalyptic Literature;   David;   English Versions;   Greek Versions of Ot;   Jonah;   Kingdom of God;   Pavilion;   Psalms;   Salvation, Saviour;   Sin;   Text, Versions, and Languages of Ot;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Cherubim ;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Darkness;   Pavilion;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Fire;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - David;   Psalms the book of;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Cloud;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bush, the Burning;   Make;   Pavilion;   Sky;   Text of the Old Testament;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Cherub;   Merkabah;   Theophany;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He made darkness his hiding place,dark storm clouds his canopy around him.
Hebrew Names Version
He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion around him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
King James Version
He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
English Standard Version
He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water.
New Century Version
He made darkness his covering, his shelter around him, surrounded by fog and clouds.
New English Translation
He shrouded himself in darkness, in thick rain clouds.
Amplified Bible
He made darkness His hiding place (covering); His pavilion (canopy) around Him, The darkness of the waters, the thick clouds of the skies.
New American Standard Bible
He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds.
World English Bible
He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion around him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
Geneva Bible (1587)
He made darkenes his secrete place, and his pauilion round about him, euen darkenesse of waters, and cloudes of the ayre.
Legacy Standard Bible
He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him,Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
Berean Standard Bible
He made darkness His hiding place, and storm clouds a canopy around Him.
Complete Jewish Bible
He rode on a keruv; he flew, swooping down on the wings of the wind.
Darby Translation
He made darkness his secret place, his tent round about him: darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
Easy-to-Read Version
He wrapped himself in darkness that covered him like a tent. He was hidden by dark clouds heavy with water.
George Lamsa Translation
He made darkness his covert; his pavilion round about him was darkness of waters and thick clouds of the skies.
Good News Translation
He covered himself with darkness; thick clouds, full of water, surrounded him.
Lexham English Bible
He made darkness his hiding place; all about him his covering was a darkness of waters, thick clouds.
Literal Translation
He made darkness His covering, His pavilion all around Him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He made darcknesse his pauylion rounde aboute hi, with darcke water & thicke cloudes to couer him.
American Standard Version
He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion round about him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
Bible in Basic English
He made the dark his secret place; his tent round him was the dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, He did swoop down upon the wings of the wind.
King James Version (1611)
He made darkenes his secret place: his pauilion round about him, were darke waters, and thicke cloudes of the skies.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For his secrete place he dyd put darkenesse: and for his pauilion rounde about hym, he dyd put darknesse of waters in cloudes of the ayre.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he made darkness his secret place: round about him was his tabernacle, even dark water in the clouds of the air.
English Revised Version
He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion round about him; darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And he stiede on cherubym, and flei; he fley ouer the pennes of wyndis.
Update Bible Version
He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion round about him, Darkness of water, thick clouds of the skies.
Webster's Bible Translation
He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion around him [were] dark waters [and] thick clouds of the skies.
New King James Version
He made darkness His secret place; His canopy around Him was dark waters And thick clouds of the skies.
New Living Translation
He shrouded himself in darkness, veiling his approach with dark rain clouds.
New Life Bible
He made darkness His hiding place, the covering around Him, the dark rain clouds of the sky.
New Revised Standard
He made darkness his covering around him, his canopy thick clouds dark with water.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Made darkness his hiding-place, Round about him - his pavilion, Darkness of waters, clouds of vapours.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(17-12) And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.
Revised Standard Version
He made darkness his covering around him, his canopy thick clouds dark with water.
Young's Literal Translation
He maketh darkness His secret place, Round about Him His tabernacle, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

Contextual Overview

1

(For the music leader. A psalm by David, the Lord 's servant. David sang this to the Lord after the Lord had rescued him from his enemies, but especially from Saul.)

I love you, Lord God, and you make me strong. 2 You are my mighty rock, my fortress, my protector, the rock where I am safe, my shield, my powerful weapon, and my place of shelter. 3 I praise you, Lord ! I prayed, and you rescued me from my enemies. 4 Death had wrapped its ropes around me, and I was almost swallowed by its flooding waters. 5 Ropes from the world of the dead had coiled around me, and death had set a trap in my path. 6 I was in terrible trouble when I called out to you, but from your temple you heard me and answered my prayer. 7 The earth shook and shivered, and the mountains trembled down to their roots. You were angry 8 and breathed out smoke. Scorching heat and fiery flames spewed from your mouth. 9 You opened the heavens like curtains, and you came down with storm clouds under your feet. 10 You rode on the backs of flying creatures and swooped down with the wind as wings.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

secret: Psalms 27:5, Psalms 81:7, Psalms 91:1

thick: Psalms 97:2, Deuteronomy 4:11, Joel 2:2

Reciprocal: Exodus 14:20 - General Exodus 19:9 - Lo Exodus 19:16 - thunders 1 Samuel 7:10 - thundered 2 Samuel 22:12 - made Job 26:8 - thick clouds Job 36:30 - and Job 36:32 - General Job 38:19 - darkness Psalms 104:3 - Who layeth Isaiah 50:3 - General Jeremiah 43:10 - his royal Ezekiel 1:4 - a great Daniel 3:17 - our God Matthew 17:5 - behold

Cross-References

Genesis 17:17
Abraham bowed with his face to the ground and thought, "I am almost a hundred years old. How can I become a father? And Sarah is ninety. How can she have a child?" So he started laughing.
Genesis 18:11
Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was well past the age for having children.
Genesis 18:12
So she laughed and said to herself, "Now that I am worn out and my husband is old, will I really know such happiness?"
Genesis 18:18
since his family will become a great and powerful nation that will be a blessing to all other nations on earth.
Genesis 18:21
Now I am going down to see for myself if those people really are that bad. If they aren't, I want to know about it."
Genesis 31:35
Rachel said, "Father, please don't be angry with me for not getting up; I am having my period." Laban kept on searching, but still did not find the idols.
Leviticus 15:19
When a woman has her monthly period, she remains unclean for seven days, and if you touch her, you must take a bath, but you remain unclean until evening.
Luke 1:7
But they did not have children. Elizabeth could not have any, and both Zechariah and Elizabeth were already old.
Luke 1:18
Zechariah said to the angel, "How will I know this is going to happen? My wife and I are both very old."
Luke 1:36
Your relative Elizabeth is also going to have a son, even though she is old. No one thought she could ever have a baby, but in three months she will have a son.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He made darkness his secret place,.... Which, and the dark waters in the next clause, are the same with the thick clouds in the last, in which Jehovah is represented as wrapping himself, and in which he lies hid as in a secret place; not so as that he cannot see others, as wicked men imagine, Job 22:13; but as that he cannot be beheld by others; the Targum interprets it,

"he caused his Shechinah to dwell in darkness;''

his pavilion round about him [were] dark waters, [and] thick clouds of the skies; these were as a tent or tabernacle, in which he dwelt unseen by men; see Job 36:29; all this may design the dark dispensation of the Jews, after their rejection and crucifixion of Christ; when God departed from them, left their house desolate, and them without his presence and protection; when the light of the Gospel was taken away from them, and blindness happened unto them, and they had eyes that they should not see, and were given up to a judicial darkness of mind and hardness of heart; which were some of the dark, deep, and mysterious methods of divine Providence, with respect to which God may be said to be surrounded with darkness, dark waters, and thick clouds; see Romans 11:7.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He made darkness his secret place - Herder has beautifully rendered this verse,

“Now he wrapped himself in darkness;

Clouds on clouds enclosed him round.”

The word rendered “secret place” - סתר sêther - means properly a hiding; then something hidden, private, secret. Hence, it means a covering, a veil. Compare Job 22:14; Job 24:15. In Psalms 81:7 it is applied to thunder: “I answered thee in the secret place of thunder;” that is, in the secret place or retreat - the deep, dark cloud, from where the thunder seems to come. Here the meaning seems to be, that God was encompassed with darkness. He had, as it were, wrapped himself in night, and made his abode in the gloom of the storm.

His pavilion - His tent, for so the word means. Compare Psalms 27:5; Psalms 31:20. His abode was in the midst of clouds and waters, or watery clouds.

Round about him - Perhaps a more literal translation would be, “the things round about him - his tent (shelter, or cover) - were the darkness of waters, the clouds of the skies.” The idea is that he seemed to be encompassed with watery clouds.

Dark waters - Hebrew, darkness of waters. The allusion is to clouds filled with water; charged with rain.

Thick clouds of the skies - The word rendered skies in this place - שׁחקים shachaqiym - means, in the singular, dust, as being fine; then a cloud, as a cloud of dust; then, in the plural, it is used to denote clouds, Job 38:37; and hence, it is used to denote the region of the clouds; the firmament; the sky; Job 37:18. Perhaps a not-inaccurate rendering here would be, “clouds of clouds;” that is, clouds rolled in with clouds; clouds of one kind rapidly succeeding those of another kind - inrolling and piled on each other. There are four different kinds of clouds; and though we cannot suppose that the distinction was accurately marked in the time of the psalmist, yet to the slightest observation there is a distinction in the clouds, and it is possible that by the use of two terms here, both denoting clouds - one thick and dense, and the other clouds as resembling dust - the psalmist meant to intimate that clouds of all kinds rolled over the firmament, and that these constituted the “pavilion” of God.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 18:11. He made darkness his secret place — God is represented as dwelling in the thick darkness, Deuteronomy 4:11; Psalms 97:2. This representation in the place before us is peculiarly proper; as thick heavy clouds deeply charged, and with lowering aspects, are always the forerunners and attendants of a tempest, and greatly heighten the horrors of the appearance: and the representation of them, spread about the Almighty as a tent, is truly grand and poetic.

Dark waters — The vapours strongly condensed into clouds; which, by the stroke of the lightning, are about to be precipitated in torrents of rain. See the next verse.


 
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