15 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.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And the Lord will utterly destroy. In this verse he means nothing else than that the Lord, by his amazing power, will open for his people a way, which formerly appeared to be shut up. He speaks figuratively. What he calls a tongue is "a bay of the sea;" for when the sea penetrates into the land, and occupies a part of it, there is a resemblance to a person putting out his tongue. He therefore means the Egyptian sea and Egypt itself, as he afterwards more fully explains. But he chiefly mentions the sea and the rivers, because they protect the countries and shut up every entrance. And will stretch out the hand over the river in the strength of his wind. He undoubtedly means the Nile, which waters the whole of Egypt, and divides it into many parts, and might thus interrupt the march of the people when returning to their native country. I have no doubt that rvch (ruach) here denotes wind, though he adds the Lord's; for all the winds are the Lord's, because he regulates and guides according to his pleasure; and more especially this phrase is employed when it is miraculously agitated by a violent whirlwind. He alludes to the former deliverance of his people, by which he brought them out of Egypt; for when the Lord was pleased to open up a way for them, he dried up the sea by the force and violence of the winds. (Exodus 14:21.) True, the Lord did not need the assistance of the winds, for he might have done it by an immediate exertion of his power. But when he makes use of outward means, let us learn, first, that all creatures are ready to yield obedience to him; for though they have a natural course, yet they are in his power, so that he can direct their force and violence in whatever way he pleases. For instance, when a wind arises, its beginning proceeds from a natural cause, and each of the winds has its properties. The south wind is moist, and the north wind is cold, and completely similar are the effects which proceed from them; for the south wind moistens bodies, and the north wind dries them. By extraordinary miracles the Lord shows that he possesses an authority far above these natural causes, so that they are governed, not by nature, (that is, by that succession of events or chain of causes which irreligious men imagine to exist,) but by God alone. Secondly, he shows that he changes the nature and order of events whenever he pleases, that he may be acknowledged to be their only Lord; because such a change exhibits more clearly his authority and dominion. On this account Isaiah called it not simply the wind, but the wind of the Lord, that we may perceive that it is not directed or moved by chance, but by the power of the Lord. And shall smite it in the seven streams. Some render it torrents, and explain it thus: "he will divide the Nile into seven parts." Though this exposition has been universally adopted, yet I do not approve of it; and I think that it has arisen from forgetfulness, rather than from ignorance, on the part of its authors, who are learned men notwithstanding, and deeply skilled in the perusal of the ancient writers. It is well known from history that the Nile had seven mouths. There are others which are little mentioned, because they had no names, and are therefore called false mouths. Whatever, then, is the number of the mouths or branches, it appears to form that number of streams or rivers; and these might have been so many hinderances to retard their journey. The Prophet expressly mentions them, because the river was highly celebrated. And shall make them be shod with shoes. [1] The river being deep, he says that he will dry it up, so that it will not be necessary to pull off their shoes in crossing it, though this would have been necessary if only a small portion of water had remained. By these metaphors, therefore, the Prophet means nothing else than that nothing will stand in God's way, when it shall be his pleasure to rescue his people from captivity. He glances at the history of a former deliverance, that they may learn that it will be the same with that which they formerly enjoyed. On this account he wished to place it, as it were, before their eyes; for the means of this deliverance was not seen. If this promise had been stated in plain terms, it might not have produced so deep an impression on their minds as by holding out this remarkable example.
1 - And make men go over dry-shod. (Heb. in shoes.) -- Eng. Ver.
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 Joshua 7:21, Joshua 7:24; to a flame of fire (note, Isaiah 5:24; compare Acts 2:3); to a bay of the sea, or a gulf, from its shape Joshua 15:5; Joshua 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.
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 Exodus 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 Isaiah 10:32; Isaiah 13:2; Zac 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 Isaiah 7:20; Isaiah 8:7; compare Genesis 31:21; Genesis 36:37; 1-Kings 4:21; Ezra 4:10, Ezra 4:16; Ezra 5:3).
(2) the effect of this smiting of the river is said to be Isaiah 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 Genesis 26:19; and then to any small brook or stream, or rivulet Genesis 32:24; Psalm 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, Isaiah 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.)
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," Exodus 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, Joshua 15:2, Joshua 15:5; Joshua 18:19. The Latins gave the same name to a narrow strip of land running into the sea: tenuem producit in aequora linguam. Lucan. 2:613. 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.
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."
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the (i) tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand (k) over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make [men] go over dryshod.
(i) Meaning a corner of the sea that enters into the land and has the form of a tongue.
(k) That is, Nile, the great river of Egypt which enters into the sea with seven streams.
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, Revelation 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, Revelation 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, Exodus 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,
"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, Revelation 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 Revelation 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.
There shall be a second exodus, destined to eclipse even the former one from Egypt in its wonders. So the prophecies elsewhere (Psalm 68:22; Exodus 14:22; Zac 10:11). The same deliverance furnishes the imagery by which the return from Babylon is described (Isaiah 48:20-21).
destroy--literally, "devote," or "doom," that is, dry up; for what God dooms, perishes (Psalm 106:9 Nahum 1:4).
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" (Exodus 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" (Isaiah 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 (Revelation 16:12).
He dwells still longer upon the miracles in which the antitypical redemption will resemble the typical one. "And Jehovah pronounces the ban upon the sea-tongue of Egypt, and swings His hand over the Euphrates in the glow of His breath, and smites it into seven brooks, and makes it so that men go through in shoes. And there will be a road for the remnant of His people that shall be left, out of Asshur, as it was for Israel in the day of its departure out of the land of Egypt." The two countries of the diaspora mentioned first are Asshur and Egypt. And Jehovah makes a way by His miraculous power for those who are returning out of both and across both. The sea-tongue of Egypt, which runs between Egypt and Arabia, i.e., the Red Sea (sinus Heroopolitanus, according to another figure), He smites with the ban (hecherim, corresponding in meaning to the pouring out of the vial of wrath in Revelation 16:12 -a stronger term than gâ‛ar, e.g., Psalm 106:9); and the consequence of this is, that it affords a dry passage to those who are coming back (though without there being any necessity to read hecherı̄b, or to follow Meier and Knobel, who combine hecherı̄m with chârūm, Leviticus 21:18, in the precarious sense of splitting). And in order that the dividing of Jordan may have its antitype also, Jehovah swings His hand over the Euphrates, to smite, breathing upon it at the same time with burning breath, so that it is split up into seven shallow brooks, through which men can walk in sandals. בּעים stands, according to the law of sound, for בּעים; and the ἁπ λεγ עים (with a fixed kametz), from עום = חום, חמם, to glow, signifies a glowing heat - a meaning which is also so thoroughly supported by the two Arabic verbs med. Ye ‛lm and glm (inf. ‛aim, gaim, internal heat, burning thirst, also violent anger), that there is no need whatever for the conjecture of Luzzatto and Gesenius, בעתסם. The early translators (e.g., lxx πνεύματι βιαίῳ, Syr. beuchdono, with a display of might) merely give conjectural renderings of the word, which had become obsolete before their time; Saadia, however, renders it with etymological correctness suchūn, from sachana, to be hot, or set on fire. Thus, by changing the Euphrates in the (parching) heat of His breath into seven shallow wadys, Jehovah makes a free course for His people who come out of Asshur, etc. This was the idea which presented itself to the prophet in just this shape, though it by no means followed that it must necessarily embody itself in history in this particular form.
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, Joshua 15:2, Joshua 15:5, 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.
*More commentary available at chapter level.