The Waters That Praised Before Any Mouth Could Speak

Another interpretation: "Let the waters be gathered [yikkavu] to Me" — let them wait [from the sense of hoping/awaiting] for what I am destined to do with them. To what may the matter be compared? To a king who built a palace and settled in it mute tenants, who would rise early and inquire after the king's welfare by gesture, by finger, and by stooping. The king said: If these, who are mute, inquire after my welfare, how much more would clever ones! The king settled clever tenants within it. They arose and seized the palace, saying: This palace is not the king's; it is ours. The king said: Let the palace return to what it was. So too, from the beginning of the creation of the world, the praise of the Holy One, blessed be He, ascended only from the waters, as it is written, "from the voices of many waters" (Psalms 93:4); and what did they say? "The LORD on high is mighty" (Psalms 93:4). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: If these, which have no mouth nor speech nor word, praise Me, how much more when I create human beings! The generation of Enosh arose and rebelled against Him, the generation of the Flood, and rebelled against Him. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Let these depart and let those come. This is what is written, "and the rain was upon the earth" (Genesis 7:12) and so on. The whole world was water within water, yet you say "to one place"? A parable of ten swollen, inflated skins set down in a hall: the king needs their place, so he unties them, lets out their air, and clears them into one corner. So the Holy One, blessed be He, trod down all the waters of creation and cleared them into the Ocean, as it is written, "behold, He holds back the waters and they dry up" (Job 12:15), and it says, "and treads upon the high places of the sea" (Job 9:8).