Isaiah 44 · Verse 27

Isaiah 44:27

That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:
Isaiah 44:27, King James Version

Isaiah 44:27 in other translations

BSBwho says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
WEBwho says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’ and ‘I will dry up your rivers,’
ASVthat saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers;
YLTWho is saying to the deep, Be dry, and thy rivers I cause to dry up,
DARBYthat saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers;
BBEWho says to the deep, Be dry, and I will make your rivers dry:
WebsterThat saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:

What does Isaiah 44:27 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 44:24-28

24-28. Confirmation of His promises to the Church and Israel, by various instances of His omnipotence; among these the restoration of the Jews by Cyrus. alone--literally, "Who was with Me?" namely, when I did it; answering to "by Myself," in the parallel clause (compare similar phrases, Ho 8:4; Joh 5:30) [Maurer].

Read the full comment on Isaiah 44:24-28 →

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 27 That saith to the deep, Be dry "Who saith to the deep, Be thou wasted" - Cyrus took Babylon by laying the bed of the Euphrates dry, and leading his army into the city by night through the empty channel of the river. This remarkable circumstance, in which the event so exactly corresponded with the prophecy, was also noted by Jeremiah, Jer 50:38; Jer 51:36. "A drought shall be upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: - I will lay her sea dry And I will scorch up her springs." It is proper here to give some account of the means and method lay which the stratagem of Cyrus was effected. The Euphrates in the middle of the summer, from the melting of the snows on the mountains of Armenia, like the Nile, overflows the country. In order to diminish the inundation, and to carry off the waters, two canals were made by Nebuchadnezzar a hundred miles above the city; the first on the eastern side called Naharmalca, or the Royal River, by which the Euphrates was let into the Tigris; the other on the western side, called Pallacopas, or Naharaga, (נהר אגם nahar agam, The river of the pool), by which the redundant waters were carried into a vast lake, forty miles square, contrived, not only to lessen the inundation, but for a reservoir, with sluices, to water the barren country on the Arabian side. Cyrus, by turning the whole river into the lake by the Pallacopas, laid the channel, where it ran through the city, almost dry; so that his army entered it, both above and below, by the bed of the river, the water not reaching above the middle of the thigh. By the great quantity-of water let into the lake, the sluices and dams were destroyed; and being never repaired afterwards, the waters spread over the whole country below, and reduced it to a morass, in which the river is lost. Ingens modo et navigabilis, inde tenuis rivus, despectus emoritur; et nusquam manifesto exitit effluit, ut alii omnes, sed deficit. "And thus a navigable river has been totally lost, it having no exit from this morass. No wonder then that the geographical face of this country is completely changed;" Mela Jer 3:8; Herod. 1:186, 190; Xenophon, Cyrop. vii.; Arrian vii.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Isaiah 44:21-28

Return unto me. It is the great concern of those who have backslidden from God, like the Jews of old, to hasten their return to him. The work of redemption wrought for us by Christ, encourages to hope for all blessings from him. Our transgressions and our sins are as a thick cloud between heaven and earth: sins separate between us and God; they threaten a storm of wrath. When God pardons sin, he blots out, he…

Read the full comment on Isaiah 44:21-28 →

Isaiah 44:27 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.

הָאֹמֵ֥רha.'o.Merwho saysH559
לַצּוּלָ֖הla.tzu.Lahto the ocean-deepH6683
חֳרָ֑בִיcho.Ra.vibe dried upH2717
וְנַהֲרֹתַ֖יִךְve.na.ha.ro.Ta.yikhand rivers yourH5104
אוֹבִֽישׁ\׃'o.VishI will make dryH3001

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

Cross references for Isaiah 44:27

  • Jeremiah 51:36

    Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.

  • Jeremiah 50:38

    A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

  • Isaiah 42:15

    I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

  • 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.

  • Jeremiah 51:32

    And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.

  • Isaiah 51:15

    But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is his name.

  • Psalms 74:15

    Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.

  • Isaiah 43:16

    Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;

  • Isaiah 11:15-16

    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. 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.

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

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Be dry.
11:15,16; 42:15; 43:16; 51:15; Ps 74:15; Jer 50:38; 51:32,36
Re 16:12

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

Context

  • Isaiah 44:26

    That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:

  • Isaiah 44:27

    That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:

  • Isaiah 44:28

    That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.

Read all of Isaiah 44

Isaiah 44:27 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Que dice al profundo: Sécate, y tus ríos haré secar;
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		moi qui dis à l’abîme: Sois sec, et je dessécherai tes fleuves;
German
Elberfelder 1871		der zu der Flut spricht: Versiege, und ich will deine Ströme austrocknen!
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		qui dico profundo: Desolare, et flumina tua arefaciam;