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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 135

1 Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Offer praise, you servants of the Lord, 2 who serve in the Lord’s temple, in the courts of the temple of our God. 3 Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises to his name, for it is pleasant. 4 Indeed, the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel to be his special possession.⁠ 5 Yes, I know the Lord is great, and our Lord is superior to all gods. 6 He does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the ocean depths. 7 He causes the clouds to arise from the end of the earth, makes lightning bolts accompany the rain, and brings the wind out of his storehouses.⁠ 8 He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, including both men and animals. 9 He performed awesome deeds and acts of judgment in your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants. 10 He defeated many nations, and killed mighty kings— 11 Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan. 12 He gave their land as an inheritance, as an inheritance to Israel his people. 13 O Lord, your name endures, your reputation, O Lord, lasts.⁠ 14 For the Lord vindicates his people and has compassion on his servants.⁠ 15 The nations’ idols are made of silver and gold; they are man-made.⁠ 16 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see, 17 and ears, but cannot hear. Indeed, they cannot breathe. 18 Those who make them will end up like them, as will everyone who trusts in them. 19 O family of Israel, praise the Lord. O family of Aaron, praise the Lord. 20 O family of Levi, praise the Lord. You loyal followers of the Lord, praise the Lord. 21 The Lord deserves praise in Zion—he who dwells in Jerusalem. Praise the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 135:7 and 1 Enoch 17:3

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

1 Enoch describes storehouses for stars and thunder, echoing Psalm 135, which describes wind brought out from divine storehouses. These follow ancient Near Eastern traditions that explained natural forces in hidden reserves under divine control.

Passages

Psalm 135:7

Hebrew Bible
5 Yes, I know the Lord is great, and our Lord is superior to all gods. 6 He does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the ocean depths. 7 He causes the clouds to arise from the end of the earth, makes lightning bolts accompany the rain, and brings the wind out of his storehouses. 8 He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, including both men and animals. 9 He performed awesome deeds and acts of judgment in your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

1 Enoch 17:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And they brought me to a place where those present were like flaming fire, and when they wished, they appeared as men. 2 And they led me to a place of darkness, and to a mountain whose peak reached to heaven. 3 And I saw the places of the sun and moon and the treasuries of the stars and of the thunder in the utmost depths, where there was a fiery bow and arrows and their quiver, and a fiery sword and all the lightnings. 4 And they took me to the living waters, and to the fire of the west, which receives every setting of the sun. 5 And I came to a river of fire where the fire flows like water and pours into the great sea towards the west.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

"... How does this overlapping imagery relate to the wider corpus of works that we label 1 Enoch? There are certainly some connections: in 17:3 and 18:1, part of the Book of the Watchers, Enoch sees storehouses/treasuries (mazāgebt) containing, respectively, the stars and the thunders, and the winds. In the case of the latter, there are some biblical source texts (notably, Psalm 135:7) that might influence the use of imagery. The concept of a storehouse or treasury in which the stars are kept is a distinctive development, however, although one that might be traced elsewhere in Second Temple literature, including that of the LXX. In a limited sense, then, the use of storehouse imagery in 17:3 and 18:1 might have contributed to its occurrence in the Parables and in 2 Enoch ..."
Grant Macaskill, “Meteorology and Metrology: Evaluating Parallels in the Ethiopic Parables of Enoch and 2 (Slavonic) Enoch,” JSP 29.2 (2019): 79–99.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Psalm 135:7 and 1 Enoch 17:3

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