Psalms 18:9
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.
American King James Version (AKJV)
He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.
American Standard Version (ASV)
He bowed the heavens also, and came down; And thick darkness was under his feet.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
The heavens were bent, so that he might come down; and it was dark under his feet.
Webster's Revision
He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.
World English Bible
He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.
English Revised Version (ERV)
He bowed the heavens also, and came down, and thick darkness was under his feet.
Clarke's Psalms 18:9 Bible Commentary
He bowed the heavens also, and came down - He made the heavens bend under him when he descended to take vengeance on his enemies. The psalmist seems here to express the appearance of the Divine majesty in a glorious cloud, descending from heaven, which underneath was substantially dark, but above, bright, and shining with exceeding lustre; and which, by its gradual approach to the earth, would appear as though the heavens themselves were bending down and approaching towards us.
Barnes's Psalms 18:9 Bible Commentary
He bowed the heavens also - He seemed to bend down the heavens - to bring them nearer to the earth. "He inclines the canopy of the heavens, as it were, toward the earth; wraps himself in the darkness of night, and shoots forth his arrows; hurls abroad his lightnings, and wings them with speed." Herder, Spirit of Hebrew Poetry (Marsh), ii. 157. The allusion is still to the tempest, when the clouds ran low; when they seem to sweep along the ground; when it appears as if the heavens were brought nearer to the earth - as if, to use a common expression, "the heavens and earth were coming together."
And came down - God himself seemed to descend in the fury of the storm.
And darkness was under his feet - A dark cloud; or, the darkness caused by thick clouds. Compare Nahum 1:3, "The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet." Deuteronomy 4:11, "the mountain burned ... with thick darkness." Deuteronomy 5:22, "these words the Lord spake out of the thick darkness." Psalm 97:2, "clouds and darkness are round about him." The idea here is that of awful majesty and power, as we are nowhere more forcibly impressed with the idea of majesty and power than in the fury of a storm.
Wesley's Psalms 18:9 Bible Commentary
18:9 Bowed - By producing thick and dark clouds, whereby the heavens seem to come down to the earth. Came - Not by change of place, but by the manifestation of his presence and power on my behalf.