מַעֲמַקִּים

From the study of Psalm 130:1

Range of meaning

From the root ʿ-m-q, 'to be deep.' It means deep places or depths, and in its few uses it nearly always means watery depths: the deep places of the sea or of floodwaters. It appears only five times in the Hebrew Bible (Ps 69:2, 69:14; 130:1; Isa 51:10; Ezek 27:34). The plural strengthens the idea: the very deep places.

Against the English

'The depths' is an accurate English rendering. A modern reader, though, tends to hear 'the depths' as an inner, emotional state ('the depths of despair'). The Hebrew word paints a physical picture first: someone deep underwater, over their head, beyond rescue. The emotional sense is there, but it comes through the picture.

How it drifted

In English, 'depths' used alone has become mostly a metaphor for feelings. The image of the sea behind the Hebrew drops away, and paraphrases like the NLT's 'depths of despair' spell out the feeling-only reading.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 69:2: 'I have come into the depths of waters (maʿamaqqe-mayim), and the flood sweeps over me'; Ps 69:14: 'deliver me… from the depths of waters'; Isa 51:10: God 'made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over' (the Red Sea crossing); Ezek 27:34: Tyre, pictured as a ship, 'wrecked by the seas in the depths of the waters.' Across the ancient Near East, and in Israel's poetry, the deep waters were tied to chaos, to death, and to the underworld (compare Jonah 2:2–6, which uses other words for the same idea: 'the heart of the seas,' 'the pit').

From the study of Ezekiel 27:34

Range of meaning

"Depths of waters," a rare poetic phrase for the deepest, deadliest water. Psalm 69:2, 14 uses it of a man drowning in trouble. Psalm 130:1 ("out of the depths") is a cry from near-death. Isaiah 51:10 uses it of the sea God made a road through at the Exodus.

Against the English

All versions render "depths of the waters," which is accurate.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the wider ancient Near East, as in Canaanite texts from Ugarit where Yam ("Sea") is a hostile divine power, the deep sea stood for chaos and death. Ezekiel 26:19–20 has already said God will "bring up the deep" over Tyre and send her down to "the Pit."

From the study of Psalm 69:14

Range of meaning

Depths, deep places. It occurs only five times, always in the plural: of the sea (Isa 51:10; Ezek 27:34) and of distress (Ps 69:2, 14; Ps 130:1).

Against the English

'Deep waters' (KJV, BSB) is a fair rendering. YLT's 'deep places of waters' keeps the Hebrew structure ('depths of waters').

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 51:10 has God, who 'made the depths of the sea a road' at the Exodus. Ezekiel 27:34 has Tyre 'wrecked in the depths of the waters.' Psalm 130:1 has 'Out of the depths I cry to you.' In Israel's poetry the deep waters are the realm of chaos that God controls (Ps 18:16; 32:6; Jonah 2:3-6), and they lie next to Sheol and the Pit.