42:15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; 1
I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn streams into islands, 2
and dry up pools of water. 3
42:16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; 4
I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. 5
I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,
and level out the rough ground. 6
This is what I will do for them.
I will not abandon them.
48:20 Leave Babylon!
Flee from the Babylonians!
Announce it with a shout of joy!
Make this known!
Proclaim it throughout the earth! 7
Say, ‘The Lord protects 8 his servant Jacob.
48:21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions;
he makes water flow out of a rock for them;
he splits open a rock and water flows out.’ 9
51:10 Did you not dry up the sea,
the waters of the great deep?
Did you not make 10 a path through the depths of the sea,
so those delivered from bondage 11 could cross over?
63:12 the one who made his majestic power available to Moses, 12
who divided the water before them,
gaining for himself a lasting reputation, 13
63:13 who led them through the deep water?
Like a horse running on flat land 14 they did not stumble.
14:26 The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward the sea, so that the waters may flow 15 back on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen!” 14:27 So Moses extended his hand toward the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state 16 when the sun began to rise. 17 Now the Egyptians were fleeing 18 before it, but the Lord overthrew 19 the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. 14:28 The water returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh that was coming after the Israelites into the sea 20 – not so much as one of them survived! 21 14:29 But the Israelites walked on dry ground in the middle of the sea, the water forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
1 tn Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”
2 tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).
3 sn The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.
4 tn Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”
5 tn Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”
6 tn Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”
7 tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).
8 tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.
9 sn The translation above (present tense) assumes that this verse describes God’s provision for returning Babylonian exiles (see v. 20; 35:6; 49:10) in terms reminiscent of the Exodus from Egypt (see Exod 17:6).
10 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made…?”
11 tn Heb “the redeemed” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV “the ransomed.”
12 tn Heb “who caused to go at the right hand of Moses the arm of his splendor.”
13 tn Heb “making for himself a lasting name.”
14 tn Heb “in the desert [or “steppe”].”
15 tn The verb, “and they will return,” is here subordinated to the imperative preceding it, showing the purpose of that act.
16 tn The Hebrew term לְאֵיתָנוֹ (lÿ’etano) means “to its place,” or better, “to its perennial state.” The point is that the sea here had a normal level, and now when the Egyptians were in the sea on the dry ground the water would return to that level.
17 tn Heb “at the turning of the morning”; NASB, NIV, TEV, CEV “at daybreak.”
18 tn The clause begins with the disjunctive vav (ו) on the noun, signaling either a circumstantial clause or a new beginning. It could be rendered, “Although the Egyptians…Yahweh…” or “as the Egyptians….”
19 tn The verb means “shake out” or “shaking off.” It has the significance of “throw downward.” See Neh 5:13 or Job 38:13.
20 tn Heb “that was coming after them into the sea.” The referent of “them” (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
21 tn Heb “not was left among them as much as one.”