Psalms 106:9
in Psalms 106He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up: So he led them through the depths, as through a wilderness.
KJV
He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
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This verse in Psalms 106
Commentary
12 notes on this verse(1.) He forced a passage for them through the sea: He rebuked the Red Sea for standing in their way and retarding their march, and it was dried up immediately; as, in the creation, at God's rebuke the waters fled, Ps. civ.
This site's exposition
We have sinned like our fathers
on Psalms 106:6-12
The confession puts this generation with the fathers. In Egypt the fathers did not grasp His wonders, and at the Red Sea they rebelled on the edge of rescue. The rescue came for the sake of His name: He rebuked the sea, covered their foes, and they believed and sang.
This site's exposition
He rebuked the Red Sea
Exodus 14:21 tells how the LORD drove the sea back with an east wind. Nahum 1:4 gives Him the same power, a God who rebukes the sea and dries it up. Isaiah 63:13 remembers the same walk through the depths.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up" [Psalm 106:9]. We do not read that any voice was sent forth from Heaven to rebuke the sea; but he has called the Divine Power by which this was effected, a rebuke: unless indeed any one may choose to say, that the sea was secretly rebuked, so that the waters might hear, and yet men could not. The power by which God acts is very abstruse and mysterious, a power which He causes that even things devoid of sense instantly obey at His will. "So He led them through the deeps, as through a wilderness." He calls a multitude of waters the deeps. For some wishing to give the sense of this whole verse, have translated, "So He led them forth amid many waters." What then does "through the deeps, as through a wilderness," mean, except that that had become as a wilderness from its dryness, where before had been the watery deeps?
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up,.... By sending a strong east wind, which drove the waters back, and made the sea a dry land, Exo 14:21. So he led them through the depths; that is, the deep waters of the sea, which were cast up as an heap, and stood as a wall on each side, through which they passed.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Their rebellion at the sea (Ex 14:11) was because they had not remembered nor understood God's miracles on their behalf. That God saved them in their unbelief was of His mere mercy, and for His own glory. the sea . . . the Red Sea--the very words in which Moses' song celebrated the scene of Israel's deliverance (Ex 15:4).
He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up. A word did it. The sea heard his voice and obeyed. How many rebukes of God are lost upon us! Are we not more unmanageable than the ocean? God did, as it were, chide the sea, and say, "Wherefore dost thou stop the way of my people? Their path to Canaan lies through thy channel, how dare you hinder them?" The sea perceived its Master and his seed royal, and made way at once. So he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. As if it had been the dry floor of the desert the tribes passed over the bottom of the gulf; nor was their passage venturesome, for He bade them go; nor dangerous, for He led them. We also have under divine protection passed through many trials and afflictions, and with the Lord as our guide we have experienced no fear and endured no perils. We have been led through the deeps as through the wilderness.
SEVERAL Sabbaths ago we preached upon the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, by the blood of the passover: and we told you then, that we believed that event to be typical of the coming forth of God’s people from that spiritual house of bondage, that furnace of mental suffering whence they are delivered by the omnipotent grace of God, at the time of their conversion. This morning we pursue the narrative.
4 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
SEVERAL Sabbaths ago we preached upon the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, by the blood of the passover: and we told you then, that we believed that event to be typical of the coming forth of God’s people from that spiritual house of bondage, that furnace of mental suffering whence they are delivered by the omnipotent grace of God, at the time of their conversion. This morning we pursue the narrative. No doubt the children of Israel supposed that now all was over; the Egyptians has sent them away, entreating them to depart, and loading them with riches. Terror had smitten the heart of Egypt, for from the king on the throne to the prisoner in the dungeon, all was dismay and fear on account of Israel. Egypt was glad for them when they departed. Therefore the children of Israel said within themselves, “We shall now march to Canaan at once; there will be no more dangers, no more troubles, no more trials; the Egyptians themselves have sent us away, and they are too much afraid of us ever to molest us again. Now shall be tread the desert through with hasty footstep; and when a few more days have passed, we shall enter into the land of our possession—the land that floweth with milk and honey.” “Not quite so speedily,” says God; “the time is not arrived yet for you to rest. It is true I have delivered you from Egypt; but there is much you have to learn before you will be prepared to dwell in Canaan. Therefore I shall lead you about, and instruct you, and teach you.” And it came to pass that the Lord led the children of Israel about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, till they arrived over against Baalzephon, where on either side the craggy mountains shut them in.
He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up. A word did it. The sea heard his voice and obeyed. How many rebukes of God are lost upon us! Are we not more unmanageable than the ocean? God did, as it were, chide the sea, and say, "Wherefore dost thou stop the way of my people? Their path to Canaan lies through thy channel, how dare you hinder them?" The sea perceived its Master and his seed royal, and made way at once. So he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
He rebuked the Red Sea - In the descriptions of the psalmist every thing has life. The sea is an animated being, behaves itself proudly, is rebuked, and retires in confusion.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
He rebuked the Red Sea also - The word rendered “rebuke” commonly means to chide - as when one is angry with another for having done wrong. Here it is evidently a poetic term, meaning that he spake “as if” he were angry; or “as if” the Red Sea did wrong in presenting an obstacle or obstruction to the passage of his people. Compare Exo 14:21-22, So he led them through the depths - Through what had been the abyss; what had seemed to be depths, being covered with water. As through the wilderness - As through a desert or dry place; as he afterward led them through the wilderness. The waters parted asunder, and made a way for them.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיִּגְעַ֣ר | vaiyigar | and he rebuked | H1605 → | 14 times |
| בְּיַם־ | beyam- | <in> [the] sea of | H3220 → | 396 times |
| ס֭וּף | suf | reed[s] | H5488 → | 28 times |
| וַֽיֶּחֱרָ֑ב | vaiyecherav | and it dried up | H2717 → | |
| וַיּוֹלִיכֵ֥ם | vaiyolikhem | and he led them | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| בַּ֝תְּהֹמ֗וֹת | batehomot | in the deeps | H8415 → | 36 times |
| כַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃ | kamidbar | like the wilderness | H4057 → | 270 times |
וַיִּגְעַ֣רand he rebuked
vaiyigarH1605 →14 times
בְּיַם־<in> [the] sea of
beyam-H3220 →396 times
ס֭וּףreed[s]
sufH5488 →28 times
וַֽיֶּחֱרָ֑בand it dried up
vaiyecheravH2717 →
וַיּוֹלִיכֵ֥םand he led them
vaiyolikhemH1980 →1546 times
בַּ֝תְּהֹמ֗וֹתin the deeps
batehomotH8415 →36 times
כַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃like the wilderness
kamidbarH4057 →270 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 18:15The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
it leads to
- Exodus 15:8
At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; like a wall the currents stood firm; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Micah 6:2
Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s indictment, you enduring foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against His people, and He will argue it against Israel:
- Exodus 15:8
Through
Nahum 1:4He rebukes the sea and dries it up; He makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon wilts.
it leads to
- Isaiah 33:9
The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
- Isaiah 50:2–3
Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold,…
- Psalms 104:7
At Your rebuke the waters fled; at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away—
- Isaiah 44:27
who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
- Joshua 3:13–15
When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will…
- Isaiah 33:9
Through
Psalms 78:13He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall.
it leads to
- Exodus 14:21
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were…
- Exodus 14:21
Where this verse is studied
On this page
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On this verse
About Psalms
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 106; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 5; Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 72: “Israel at the Red Sea” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.