Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.
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And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.
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And the LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His scorching wind will He shake His hand over the River, and will smite it into seven streams, and cause men to march over dry-shod.
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Isaiah 11:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Zechariah 10:11 He will pass through the sea of affliction, and will strike the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the Nile will dry up; and the pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt will depart.
- Revelation 16:12 The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings that come from the sunrise.
- Isaiah 50:2 Why, when I came, was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness. Their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst.
- Isaiah 7:20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.
- Isaiah 19:16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of Yahweh of Armies’s hand, which he shakes over them.
- Isaiah 19:5-10 The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry. The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away. The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more. The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish. Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded. The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul.
- Isaiah 51:9-10 Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster? Isn’t it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
- Ezekiel 29:10 therefore, behold, I am against you, and against your rivers. I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia.
- Ezekiel 30:12 I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men. I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.”
- Exodus 7:19-21 Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your rod, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their ponds of water, that they may become blood. There will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ” Moses and Aaron did so, as Yahweh commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. The fish that were in the river died. The river became foul. The Egyptians couldn’t drink water from the river. The blood was throughout all the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 14:21 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
- Psalms 74:13-15 You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures. You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Meaning, a corner of the sea, that entereth into…
Meaning, a corner of the sea, that entereth into the land, and hath the form of a tongue.
To wit, Nile, the great river of Egypt, which entereth into the sea with seven streams.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 11:15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the…
Isa 11:15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make [men] go over dryshod.
Ver. 15. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea.] That is, by drying up, or driving away the waters, he shall open a way through the Red Sea, which representeth the form and fashion of a tongue. He alludeth to Exo 14:22; for Christ being our Conduct, we do enter by baptism, as by the Red Sea, into the Church, and after this life present into the kingdom of heaven.
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He shall shake his hand over the river.] The river Nile. The sense is, he shall remove all obstacles and impediments. This was fulfilled. {Act 2:41}
With his mighty wind.] The Chaldee paraphraseth in eloquio prophetarum suorum, by the word of his prophets; quod apostolis non parum congruit, saith Oecolampadius, which very well agreeth to the apostles converting the elect, whom neither height nor depth could keep from "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." {Rom 8:39} The Jews expect, but in vain, that all these things should be fulfilled unto them in the letter by their Messiah, as once they were by Moses at the Red Sea.
And make men go over dryshod.] Without boat or boot.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Shall utterly destroy; shall not only divide it, as…
Shall utterly destroy; shall not only divide it, as of old, but will quite dry it up, that it may be a highway, as it is explained in the next verse.
The tongue of the Egyptian sea; the Red Sea, which may well be called the Egyptian sea, both because it borders upon Egypt, and because the Egyptians were drowned in it, which is called a tongue in the Hebrew text, Jos 15:2,5, as having some resemblance with a tongue; for which reason the name of hath been given by geographers to promontories of land which shoot forth into the sea, as this sea did shoot out of the main ocean into the laud.
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Shake his hand; he alludes to Moses’s shaking of his hand with the rod of God in it over the sea;
over the river, to wit, of Egypt, Nilus, as appears both from the foregoing and from the following words.
The seven streams; for which Nilus is famous in all authors, and by which it emptieth itself into the sea.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of…
And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea,.... Which Kimchi and Abarbinel interpret of the Egyptian river Sichor, or the Nile; others of a bay of the Egyptian sea, so called because in the form of a tongue; the destroying of it designs the drying of it up, so that people might pass over it dry shod; the allusion is to the drying up of the Red Sea, when the Israelites came out of Egypt, and passed through it, as on dry land; and it intends the destruction of Egypt itself, not literally by the Romans, in the times of Augustus Caesar, as Jerom thinks, who interprets the "strong wind", in the following clause, of them; but figuratively, the destruction of Rome, which is spiritually called Egypt, Rev 11:8 and the utter destruction of it, by an anathema, and with a curse, from the Lord himself; as the word here used signifies; and which will take place upon the battle at Armageddon, Rev 16:16 which has its name from the word in the text:
and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river; in allusion to Moses's stretching out his hand over the Red sea, and the Lord's causing it to go back with a strong east wind, Exo 14:21. Some understand this of the river Nile as before, and that because of what follows; but Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of the river Euphrates, which is commonly understood in Scripture when "the river", without any explication, is made mention of; and so the Targum,
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"and the Lord shall dry up the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and shall lift up the stroke of his strength upon Euphrates, by the word of his prophets;''
and this designs the destruction of the Turks, or the Ottoman empire, which is signified by the drying up of the river Euphrates, Rev 16:12 where it is thought by some there is an allusion to the words here:
and shall smite it in the seven streams; which have made some think the river Nile is meant, because that had its seven streams, or gates, as Juvenal calls (o) them, or mouths, by which the sea issued into it; which are called (p) the Canopic or Heracleotic, the Bolbitine or Bolbitic, the Sebennitic, the Phatnitic, the Mendesian, the Tanitic or Saitic, and the Pelusian or Bubastic, from the cities Canopus and Heracleum, Bolbitine, Sebennytus, Phatnus, Mendes, Tanis or Sais, Pelusium, and Bubastus, built on the shore of these entrances; but it may be observed, that the river Euphrates was drained by seven ditches or rivulets by Cyrus, when Babylon was taken, by which means his soldiers entered the city dry shod, to which the allusion may be here; and it may denote the entire destruction of the Turkish empire, in all its branches; for "seven", as Kimchi observes, may signify a multitude, even the many kingdoms, people, and nations, under that jurisdiction:
and make men go over dryshod; or "with shoes", with them on, there being no need to pluck them off, the river and its streams being dried up; by the "men" are, meant the "kings of the east", of which See Gill on Rev 16:12 all these phrases denote the removal of all impediments out of the way of God's people in those parts, in coming over to the Christian religion, and their embracing and professing that.
(o) Satyr. 13. (p) Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 10.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Destroy - Shall not only divide it, as of…
Destroy - Shall not only divide it, as of old, but dry it up, that it may be an high-way. The sea - The Red Sea, which may well be called the Egyptian sea, both because it borders upon Egypt, and because the Egyptians were drowned in it, which is called a tongue in the Hebrew text, Josh. xv, 2, 5, as having some resemblance with a tongue: for which reason the name of tongue hath been given by geographers to promontories of land which shoot forth into the sea, as this sea did shoot out of the main ocean into the land. Rivers - Nile. Seven streams - For which it is famous in all authors.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 15. The Lord - shall smite it in…
Verse 15. The Lord - shall smite it in the seven streams - "Smite with a drought"] The Chaldee reads החריב hecherib; and so perhaps the Septuagint, who have ερημωσει, the word by which they commonly render it. Vulg. desolabit; "shall desolate." The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee read הדריכהו hidrichahu, "shall make it passable," adding the pronoun, which is necessary: but this reading is not confirmed by any MS.
Here is a plain allusion to the passage of the Red Sea. And the Lord's shaking his hand over the river with his vehement wind, refers to a particular circumstance of the same miracle: for "he caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land," Ex 14:21. The tongue; a very apposite and descriptive expression for a bay such as that of the Red Sea. It is used in the same sense, Jos 15:2; Jos 15:5; Jos 18:19. The Latins gave the same name to a narrow strip of land running into the sea: tenuem producit in aequora linguam. LUCAN. ii. 613. He shall smite the river to its seven streams. This has been supposed to refer to the Nile, because it falls into the Mediterranean Sea by seven mouths: but R. Kimchi understands it of the Euphrates, which is the opinion of some good judges. See the Targum. See below.
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Herodotus, lib. i, 189, tells a story of his Cyrus, (a very different character from that of the Cyrus of the Scriptures and Xenophon,) which may somewhat illustrate this passage, in which it is said that God would inflict a kind of punishment and judgment on the Euphrates, and render it fordable by dividing it into seven streams. "Cyrus, being impeded in his march to Babylon by the Gyndes, a deep and rapid river which falls into the Tigris, and having lost one of his sacred white horses that attempted to pass it, was so enraged against the river that he threatened to reduce it, and make it so shallow that it should be easily fordable even by women, who should not be up to their knees in passing it. Accordingly he set his whole army to work, and cutting three hundred and sixty trenches, from both sides of the river, turned the waters into them, and drained them off."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 11:15-16. And the Lord shall utterly destroy —…
Isa 11:15-16. And the Lord shall utterly destroy — Shall not only divide it, as of old, but shall quite dry it up, that it may be a highway; the tongue of the Egyptian sea — The Red sea, which may well be called the Egyptian sea, both because it borders upon Egypt, and because the Egyptians were drowned in it. It is called a tongue, both here and in the Hebrew text, (Jos 15:2; Jos 15:5,) as having some resemblance to a tongue; and for a similar reason the name of tongue has been given by geographers to promontories of land which shoot forth into the sea, as this sea shoots out of the main ocean into the land. Bishop Lowth renders the clause, Jehovah shall smite with a drought the tongue, &c., following the Chaldee, which, instead of החרים, he destroyed, reads החריב, he dried up. And the next clause, which he understands, not of the river Nile, but of the Euphrates, the bishop very properly translates, “And he shall shake his hand over the river with his vehement wind; and he shall strike it into seven streams, and make them pass over it dry-shod.” Thus also Dr. Waterland, after Vitringa: “He shall shake his hand over the Euphrates, and shall smite it into seven outlets;” that is, he shall divide or separate it into seven small rivers, so as to render it easy to be passed over. What is thus expressed metaphorically in this clause, is declared in plain words in the next verse: And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, &c. — As there shall be a highway from Egypt, the Red sea being dried up, so shall there be from Assyria, the river Euphrates being rendered fordable. In other words, and without a figure, all impediments shall be removed, and a way shall be made for the return of God’s Israel from all parts of the world. He mentions Egypt and Assyria particularly, because they were then two flourishing kingdoms which bordered upon Judea, and by turns were the great oppressors of God’s people. And the ten tribes having been carried captive to Assyria, their case especially seemed desperate. But these two kingdoms stand here, in the prophetic style, for the adverse empires in general, especially those of idolatry and superstition, which shall be either destroyed or reduced to such a state of weakness as not to be able to hinder the progress of the conversion of the Jews and Gentiles. “My belief,” says Vitringa, “upon the strength of this prophecy is, that all the impediments of the great empires of the world being removed, which yet delay the perfect completion of the great and excellent promises made to the church, and hinder the calling and collection of the Jews and Gentiles, the empire of the kingdom of Christ will extend itself over the whole world, according to the remarkable prediction of Daniel, chap. 2:35, &c.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And the Lord - The prophet goes on with…
And the Lord - The prophet goes on with the description of the effect which shall follow the return of the scattered Jews to God. The language is figurative, and is here drawn from that which was the great storehouse of all the imagery of the Jews - the deliverance of their fathers from the bondage of Egypt. The general sense is, that all the embarrassments which would tend to impede them would be removed; and that God would make their return as easy and as safe, as would have been the journey of their fathers to the land of Canaan, if the ‘Egyptian Sea’ had been removed entirely, and if the ‘river,’ with its ‘seven streams,’ by nature so formidable a barrier, had been dried up, and a path had been made to occupy its former place. Figuratively, the passage means, that all the obstructions to the peace and safety of the people of God would be removed, and that their way would be easy and safe.
The tongue - The Hebrews applied the word ‘tongue’ to anything that resembled a tongue - to a bar of gold Jos 7:21, Jos 7:24; to a flame of fire (note, Isa 5:24; compare Act 2:3); to a bay of the sea, or a gulf, from its shape Jos 15:5; Jos 18:19. So we speak of a tongue of land. When it is said that the Lord would ‘utterly destroy’ it, it is equivalent to saying that it would be entirely dried up; that is, so as to present no obstruction.
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Of the Egyptian Sea - Some interpreters, among whom is Vitringa, have supposed that by the tongue of the Egyptian Sea mentioned here, is meant the river Nile, which flows into the Mediterranean, here called, as they suppose, the Egyptian Sea. Vitringa observes that the Nile, before it flows into the Mediterranean, is divided into two streams or rivers, which form the Delta or the triangular territory lying between these two rivers, and bounded on the north by the Mediterranean. The eastern branch of the Nile being the largest, he supposes is called the tongue or “bay” of the Egyptian Sea. But to this interpretation there are obvious objections:
(1) It is not known that the Mediterranean is elsewhere called the Egyptian Sea.
(2) This whole description pertains to the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt The imagery is all drawn from that. But, in their departure, the Nile constituted no obstruction. Their place of residence, in Goshen, was east of the Nile. All the obstruction that they met with, from any sea or river, was from the Red Sea.
(3) The Red Sea is divided, at its northern extremity, into two bays, or forks, which may be called the “tongues” of the sea, and across one of which the Israelites passed in going from Egypt. Of these branches, the western one was called the Heroopolite branch, and the eastern, the Elanitic branch. It was across the western branch that they passed. When it is said that Yahweh would ‘destroy’ this, it means that he would dry it up so that it would be no obstruction; in other words, he would take the most formidable obstructions to the progress of his people out of the way.
And with his mighty wind - With a strong and powerful wind. Michaelis supposes that by this is meant a tempest. But there is, more probably, a reference to a strong and steady hot wind, such as blows over burning deserts, and such as would have a tendency to dry up even mighty waters. The illustration is, probably, derived from the fact that a strong east wind was employed to make a way through the Red Sea Exo 14:21. If the allusion here be rather to a mighty wind or a tempest, than to one that is hot, and that tends to evaporate the waters even of the rivers, then it means that the wind would be so mighty as to part the waters, and make a path through the river, as was done in the Red Sea and at the Jordan. The “idea” is, that God would remove the obstructions to the rapid and complete deliverance and conversion of people.
Shall he shake his hand - This is to indicate that the mighty wind will be sent from God, and that it is designed to effect this passage through the rivers. The shaking of the band, in the Scripture, is usually an indication of anger, or of strong and settled purpose (see Isa 10:32; Isa 13:2; Zec 2:9).
Over the river - Many have understood this as referring to the Nile; but two considerations show that the Euphrates is rather intended:
(1) The term ‘the river’ (הנהר hanâhâr) is usually applied to the Euphrates, called the river, by way of eminence; and when the term is used without any qualification, that river is commonly intended (see the notes at Isa 7:20; Isa 8:7; compare Gen 31:21; Gen 36:37; 1Ki 4:21; Ezr 4:10, Ezr 4:16; Ezr 5:3).
(2) the effect of this smiting of the river is said to be Isa 11:16 that there would be a highway for the people “from Assyria,” which could be caused only by removing the obstruction which is produced by the Euphrates lying between Judea and some parts of Assyria.
And shall smite it - That is to dry it up, or to make it pasable.
In the seven streams - The word ‘streams’ here (נחלים nechâlı̂ym) denotes streams of much less dimensions than a river. It is applied to a “valley” with a brook running through it Gen 26:19; and then to any small brook or stream, or rivulet Gen 32:24; Psa 74:15. Here it denotes brooks or streams that would be fordable. When it is said that the river should be smitten ‘in the seven streams,’ the Hebrew does not mean that it was “already” divided into seven streams, and that God would smite “them,” but it means, that God would smite it “into” seven streams or rivulets; that is, into “many” such rivulets (for the number seven is often used to denote a large indefinite number, Note, Isa 4:1); and the expression denotes, that though the river presented an obstruction, in its natural size, which they could not overcome, yet God would make new channels for it, and scatter it into innumerable rivulets or small streams, so that they could pass ever it dry-shod.
A remarkable illustration of this occurs in Herodotus (i. 189): ‘Cyrus, in his march to Babylon, arrived at the river Gyndes, which, rising in the mountains of Matiene, and passing through the country of the Darneans, loses itself in the Tigris; and this, after flowing by Opis, is finally discharged into the Red Sea. While Cyrus was endeavoring to pass this river, which could not be perfomed without boats, one of the white consecrated horses boldly entering the stream, in his attempts to cross it, was borne away by the rapidity of the current, and totally lost. Cyrus, exasperated by the accident, made a vow that he would render this stream so very insignificant, that women should hereafter be able to cross it without so much as wetting their feet. He accordingly suspended his designs on Babylon, and divided his forces into two parts; he then marked out with a line on each side of the river, one hundred and eighty trenches; these were dug according to his orders, and so great a number of people were employed that he accomplished his purpose; but he thus wasted the whole of that summer’ (see also Seneca, “De Ira.” iii. 21).
Go over dry-shod - Hebrew, ‘In shoes, or sandals.’ The waters in the innumerable rivulets to which the great river should be reduced, would be so shallow, that they could even pass them in their sandals without wetting their feet - a strong figurative expression, denoting that the obstruction would be completely removed. ‘The prophet, under these metaphors, intends nothing else than that there would be no impediment to God when he wished to deliver his people from captivity.’ - (Calvin.)
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Tongue. Gulf of the Mediterranean, near Pelusium, or the…
Tongue. Gulf of the Mediterranean, near Pelusium, or the seven mouths of the river Nile. The country was ravaged by Sennacherib, Cambyses, Alex.[Alexander the Great?], and Epiphanes, chap. xix. 4., &c. The Jewish captives shall return thence, chap. l. 3., and Zacharias x. 10.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain There shall be a second exodus, destined to eclipse…
There shall be a second exodus, destined to eclipse even the former one from Egypt in its wonders. So the prophecies elsewhere (Psa 68:22; Exo 14:22; Zac 10:11). The same deliverance furnishes the imagery by which the return from Babylon is described (Isa 48:20-21).
destroy--literally, "devote," or "doom," that is, dry up; for what God dooms, perishes (Psa 106:9 Nah 1:4).
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tongue--the Bubastic branch of the Nile [VITRINGA]; but as the Nile was not the obstruction to the exodus, it is rather the west tongue or Heroöpolite fork of the Red Sea.
with . . . mighty wind--such as the "strong east wind" (Exo 14:21), by which God made a way for Israel through the Red Sea. The Hebrew for "mighty" means terrible. MAURER translates, "With the terror of His anger"; that is, His terrible anger.
in the seven streams--rather, "shall smite it (divide it by smiting) into seven (many) streams, so as to be easily crossed" [LOWTH]. So Cyrus divided the river Gyndes, which retarded his march against Babylon, into three hundred sixty streams, so that even a woman could cross it [HERODOTUS, 1.189]. "The river" is the Euphrates, the obstruction to Israel's return "from Assyria" (Isa 11:16), a type of all future impediments to the restoration of the Jews.
dry shod--Hebrew, "in shoes." Even in sandals they should be able to pass over the once mighty river without being wet (Rev 16:12).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15, 16. The wonders which Jehovah wrought for Israel…
15, 16. The wonders which Jehovah wrought for Israel in his escape from Egypt, and will yet work in his deliverances from Assyria, are to be repeated essentially, but in the spiritual sense, in behalf of the dispersed of Israel, or at least the Israel that shall return to Jehovah in those lands. The whole description is exaltedly figurative and the poetry wonderful, considering the small physical scope from within which the terms and vocables are drawn as signs of the prophet’s overflowing conceptions.
And the Lord shall utterly destroy — Shall lay the ban upon the Sea of Egypt: — that which lies between Egypt and Arabia, the Gulf of Suez or the Red Sea, which the children of Israel passed. Jehovah smites it with the ban; he makes it dry again for passage to converted ones out of Egypt toward Zion.
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With his mighty wind — With his heated, glowing breath, and wave of hand, as employing mediate agency over the Euphrates. Observe the attention, as before, first on the two great world-kingdoms.
Smite it in the seven streams — Jehovah splinters the great river into seven, or an indefinite number of shallow streams to become, through God’s heated air, dry wadys for an unobstructed highway to the saints from Assyria, as well as in old time there was to God’s typical people out of Egypt. In these terms no literal history is asserted for the future Messianic people, but merely a gradual disappearing of the whole circle of heathendom comes to pass, and tropically the Holy Land is the centre of Messiah’s kingdom.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15. Cf. Zec_10:10 f. shall utterly destroy] lit. “lay…
15. Cf. Zec_10:10 f. shall utterly destroy] lit. “lay under the ban.” But the reading of several ancient versions (heḥìrîb for heḥìrîm) gives a better sense: dry up; cf. ch. Isa_50:2. the tongue of the Egyptian sea is the Gulf of Suez (cf. Jos_15:2; Jos_15:5; Jos_18:19).
with his mighty wind] Perhaps with the fierce heat of his breath. The word rendered “fierce heat” does not occur again in Hebrew, but a similar Arabic word is used of internal heat (either physical or mental). The phrase seems misplaced; it belongs to the figure of the drying up of the sea, not to that of shaking the hand. over the river] the Euphrates, as in ch. Isa_7:20, Isa_8:7. smile it in the seven streams] R.V. into seven streams. dryshod] lit. “in sandals.”
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15, 16. A miraculous passage prepared for the return of the exiles. The allusions to the Exodus are palpable and extend to the next chapter.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) The tongue . . .—Better, as in Jos_15:2;…
(15) The tongue . . .—Better, as in Jos_15:2; Jos_15:5; Jos_18:19, the “bay” or “gulf.” The “Egyptian sea” is the Gulf of Suez, and the prophet pictures to himself another marvel like the passage of the Red Sea in Exo_14:22. The “river,” on the other hand, is the word Commonly used for the Euphrates (Gen_31:21; Jos_24:2), and that meaning is assigned to it here by most commentators, who refer to Isa_44:27 as a parallel. In Isa_19:5, however, it is found, as here, in parallelism with the “sea” of Egypt, and as it there refers to the Nile, that meaning may well be accepted here. The prophet describes, in language which almost excludes the thought of a merely literal fulfilment, a renewal of wonders transcending those of the Exodus, and it was natural that his description should bear the local colouring of the region. He contemplates a return from Egypt as much as from Assyria (Isa_11:11). On this view the words that follow, “will smite it in the seven streams,” refer naturally enough to the seven mouths that enclose and intersect the Delta of the Nile. On the other view, the words may be interpreted as meaning literally, “I will smite it [Euphrates] into seven streams,” and figuratively, “I will reduce the power of Assyria [or Babylon, as an Assyrian city] to insignificance.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The Lord shall utterly destroy; rather, shall lay under…
The Lord shall utterly destroy; rather, shall lay under a curse (Aquila, anayematisei ). The tongue of the Egyptian sea. Either the Gulf of Suez or that of Akabah. God shall do away with those obstacles which keep the nations apart and prevent ready intercourse. Both gulfs are thought to have extended anciently considerably further inland than they do at present. With his mighty wind; rather, with the might of his breath (in fortitudine spiritus sui, Vulgate). Shall he shake his hand. A gesture of menace. (comp. Isa_10:32) Over the river. "The river" (hun-unbar) is, as usually, the Euphrates, the great river of Western Asia. And smite it in the seven streams; rather, and smite it into seven streams; i.e. divide its waters among seven channels, so that it may be readily forded, and cease to be a barrier. Dry-shod; literally, in their shoes; i.e. without taking them off;
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the…
Isa_11:15
The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea.
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The Egyptian sea and the river
The tongue, i.e., the bay (cf. Jos_15:2)
of the Red Sea (the Gulf of Suez) will be banned, i.e., rendered harmless to those who would cross it, by being dried up; the river (the Euphrates), swift and too deep to be forded as it is, will be split into seven separate channels, which separately may be forded without danger. (Prof. Driver, D. D.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 11:15-16 Using imagery from Israel’s past exodus, Isaiah encouraged…
11:15-16 Using imagery from Israel’s past exodus, Isaiah encouraged his listeners by promising that God would bring his people out of Assyria the way he brought them out of Egypt (Exod 14:29–15:18; see also Rev 16:12).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.