Isaiah 23:4

23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon,

for the sea ¹  says this, O fortress of the sea:

“I have not gone into labor

or given birth;

I have not raised young men

or brought up young women.” ² 

Isaiah 51:10

51:10 Did you not dry up the sea,

the waters of the great deep?

Did you not make ³  a path through the depths of the sea,

so those delivered from bondage ⁴  could cross over?

[23:4]  ¹ tn J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:430-31) sees here a reference to Yam, the Canaanite god of the sea. He interprets the phrase מָעוֹז הַיָּם (ma’oz hayyam, “fortress of the sea”) as a title of Yam, translating “Mighty One of the Sea.” A more traditional view is that the phrase refers to Sidon.

[23:4]  ² tn Or “virgins” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

[51:10]  ³ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made…?”

[51:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “the redeemed” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV “the ransomed.”