Isaiah 11 · Verse 15

Isaiah 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.
Isaiah 11:15, King James Version

Isaiah 11:15 in other translations

BSBThe LORD will devote to destruction the gulf of the Sea of Egypt; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates. He will split it into seven streams for men to cross with dry sandals.
WEBThe LORD 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.
ASVAnd Jehovah will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind will he wave his hand over the River, and will smite it into seven streams, and cause men to march over dryshod.
YLTAnd Jehovah hath devoted to destruction The tongue of the sea of Egypt, And hath waved His hand over the river, In the terror of his wind, And hath smitten it at the seven streams, And hath caused men to tread it with shoes.
DARBYAnd Jehovah will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind will he shake his hand over the river, and will smite it into seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.
BBEAnd the Lord will make the tongue of the Egyptian sea completely dry; and with his burning wind his hand will be stretched out over the River, and it will be parted into seven streams, so that men may go over it with dry feet.
WebsterAnd the LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind will he shake his hand over the river, and will smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod.

What does Isaiah 11:15 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
15. 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; Ex 14:22; Zec 10:11). The same deliverance furnishes the imagery by which the return from Babylon is described (Is 48:20, 21). destroy--literally, "devote," or "doom," that is, dry up; for what God dooms, perishes (Psa 106:9 Na 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" (Ex 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" (Is 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 (Re 16:12).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
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," Exo 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. 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."

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Isaiah 11:10-16

When the gospel should be publicly preached, the Gentiles would seek Christ Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, and find rest of soul. When God's time is come for the deliverance of his people, mountains of opposition shall become plains before him. God can soon turn gloomy days into glorious ones. And while we expect the Lord to gather his ancient people, and bring them home to his church, also to bring in the fulness…

Read the full comment on Isaiah 11:10-16 →

Isaiah 11:15 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וְהֶחֱרִ֣יםve.he.che.Rimand he will divideH2763
יְהוָ֗הYah.wehYahwehH3068
אֵ֚ת'et<obj.>H853
לְשׁ֣וֹןle.Shon[the] tongue ofH3956
יָם\־yom-[the] sea ofH3220
מִצְרַ֔יִםmitz.Ra.yimEgyptH4714
וְהֵנִ֥יףve.he.Nifand he will brandishH5130
יָד֛וֹya.Dohand hisH3027
עַל\־'al-overH5921
הַנָּהָ֖רha.na.Harthe RiverH5104
בַּעְיָ֣םba'.Yamwith [the] heat ofH5868
רוּח֑וֹru.Chowind hisH7307
וְהִכָּ֙הוּ֙ve.hi.Ka.huand he will strike itH5221
לְשִׁבְעָ֣הle.shiv.'Ahinto sevenH7651
נְחָלִ֔יםne.cha.LimwadisH5158
וְהִדְרִ֖יךְve.hid.Rikhand he will make walkH1869
בַּנְּעָלִֽים\׃ba.ne.'a.Limin <the> sandalsH5275

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Isaiah 11:15

  • Zechariah 10:11

    And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.

  • Revelation 16:12

    And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

  • Isaiah 50:2

    Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot 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 stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.

  • Isaiah 19:16

    In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shaketh over it.

  • Isaiah 7:20

    In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.

  • Isaiah 19:5-10

    And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither. The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more. The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. …

  • Ezekiel 29:10

    Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.

  • Isaiah 51:9-10

    Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?

  • Ezekiel 30:12

    And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the Lord have spoken it.

  • Exodus 14:21

    And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

  • Exodus 7:19-21

    And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote 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. And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

  • Psalms 74:13-15

    Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
utterly.
50:2; 51:9,10; Zec 10:11
with his mighty.
Ex 14:21
he shake.
19:16
shall smite.
19:5-10; Ex 7:19-21; Ps 74:13-15; Eze 29:10; 30:12; Re 16:12
dryshod. Heb. in shoes.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Isaiah 11:14

    But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.

  • Isaiah 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.

  • Isaiah 11:16

    And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

Read all of Isaiah 11

Isaiah 11:15 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Y secará Jehová la lengua de la mar de Egipto; y levantará su mano con fortaleza de su espíritu sobre el río, y herirálo en sus siete brazos, y hará que pasen por él con zapatos.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Et l’ Éternel desséchera la langue de la mer d’Égypte; et il secouera sa main sur le fleuve dans l’impétuosité de son vent, et le frappera pour qu’il devienne sept ruisseaux, et y fera marcher avec des souliers.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Und Jehova wird die Meereszunge Ägyptens zerstören; und er wird seine Hand über den Strom schwingen mit der Glut seines Hauches, und ihn in sieben Bäche zerschlagen und machen, daß man mit Schuhen hindurchgeht.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Et desolabit Dominus linguam maris Ægypti, et levabit manum suam super flumen in fortitudine spiritus sui; et percutiet eum in septem rivis, ita ut transeant per eum calceati.