Rivers And Watering

Ἐπῆραν οἱ ποταμοὶ, Κύριε, ἐπῆραν οἱ ποταμοὶ φωνὰς αὐτῶν, ἀροῦσιν οἱ ποταμοὶ ἐπιτρίψεις αὐτῶν... Ποταμοὺς τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἀποστόλους καλεῖ, καὶ τοὺς μετ' ἐκείνους δεξαμένους τὸ κήρυγμα. Οὗτοι γὰρ ποταμῶν δίκην ἅπασαν ἀνθρώποις τὴν ἀρδείαν προσήνεγκαν. Οὕτως αὐτοὺς καὶ ὁ μακάριος προσηγόρευσεν Ἀββακούμ· Ποταμῶν ῥαγήσεται γῆ, τουτέστι διαιρεθήσεται, καὶ τὴν ἀρδείαν δέξεται. Οὕτω καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἔφη· Ὁ πιστεύων εἰς ἐμὲ, καθὼς εἶπεν ἡ Γραφὴ, ποταμοὶ ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας αὐτοῦ ῥεύσουσιν ὕδατος ζῶντος. Οὗ τοι τοίνυν οἱ ποταμοὶ ἐπῆραν αὐτῶν τὴν φωνὴν, τὰ θεῖα κηρύττοντες δόγματα, καὶ τὰς οἰκείας πορείας ποιούμενοι. Τρίψεις γὰρ τὰς τρίβους ἐκάλε σεν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ πέφυκε τῶν ὑδάτων ἡ φύσις τρίβειν τὴν ὑποκειμένην γῆν, καὶ πορείαν ἐργάζεσθαι, εἰκότως τρίψιν τῶν ποταμῶν τὴν πορείαν ἐκάλεσεν· οἱ γὰρ πρῶτοι πιστευθέντες τὸ κήρυγμα τὴν ὁδὸν δευτέροις ηὐτρέπισαν, καὶ ἄπονον αὐτοῖς καὶ ἀταλαίπωρον τὴν διδασκαλίαν ἐπραγματεύσαντο. Θεοδώρητος Ἐπίσκοπος Κύρρος, Ἑρμηνεία εἰς Τους Ψαλμούς, Ψαλμός ϟΒ´ Source: Migne PG 80.1625c-1628a

The rivers have risen up, O Lord, their voices have risen up, the rivers raised up their beating waters... 1 He calls the holy Apostles rivers, and those after them who took up the preaching of the Gospel. For these like rivers bring water to all men. So Habakkuk names all these blessed: 'The earth will be cut through with rivers.' 2 that is, it will be divided and irrigated. So indeed the Lord says, 'He who believes in me, as Scripture says, there shall flow out from his bosom rivers of living waters.' 3 Therefore these rivers have raised up their voices in the preaching of the Divine teachings, and in the making of their own ways. By the beating waters he speaks of paths. Because the nature of water is to wear away the earth which is subject to it, and by that it makes paths. Rightly, then, he calls the way the wearing away of the waters, because those to whom the Divine preaching was first entrusted, they prepared a way for those who came second, fashioning for them a less laborious and less painful way for teaching. Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Commentary on the Psalms, from Psalm 92 1 Ps 92.3 2 Habak 3.10 3 Jn 7.38