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Psalms

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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 Jeremiah 51:16

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Jeremiah 51 and Psalm 135 describe wind, rain, and lightning as emerging from divine storehouses, drawing on ancient Near Eastern cosmology in which natural forces are stored in the same way human kings store their goods.

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

Jeremiah 51:16

Hebrew Bible
15 He is the one who by his power made the earth. He is the one who by his wisdom fixed the world in place; by his understanding, he spread out the heavens. 16 When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar. He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons; he makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain. He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it; 17 all idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham; there is no breath in any of those idols.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jeremiah

References

"... The connection between kings and their storehouses with grain, and God and his storehouses with rain, is firmly established in the Hebrew Bible. The verse Deuteronomy 28:12 – which is used in the parable and serves as its metaphorical point of departure – might be the best example of this. Some other examples are Job 38:22-23, Psalm 135:7, and Jeremiah 51:16 (compare Jeremiah 10:13) ..."
Martijn Stoutjesdijk, “‘Not Like the Rest of the Slaves’?: Slavery Parables in Early Rabbinic and Early Christian Literature” (diss., Tilburg University, 2021), 228.

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 Jeremiah 51:16

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