Isaiah 44:27

King James Version (1611 Edition)

That saith to the deepe; Be dry, and I will drie vp thy riuers.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
who says to the depths of the sea, “Be dry,”and I will dry up your rivers;

Hebrew Names Version
who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers;

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

English Standard Version
who says to the deep, ‘Be dry; I will dry up your rivers';

New American Standard Bible
"I am the One who says to the depth of the sea, 'Dry up!' And I will make your rivers dry up.

New Century Version
I tell the deep waters, ‘Become dry! I will make your streams become dry!'

Amplified Bible
"It is I who says to the deep, 'Be dried up!' And I will make your rivers dry.

World English Bible
who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers;

Geneva Bible (1587)
He saith to the deepe, Be drye and I will drye vp thy floods.

Legacy Standard Bible
It is I who says to the depth of the sea, ‘Be dried up!'And I will make your rivers dry.

Berean Standard Bible
who says to the depths of the sea, 'Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,'

Contemporary English Version
I am the one who commands the sea and its streams to run dry.

Complete Jewish Bible
I say to the deep sea, ‘Dry up! I will make your streams run dry.'

Darby Translation
that saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers;

Easy-to-Read Version
He tells the deep waters, "Become dry! I will make your streams dry too."

George Lamsa Translation
Who said to the deep, Be dry, and who dried up the rivers;

Good News Translation
With a word of command I dry up the ocean.

Lexham English Bible
who says to the deep, ‘Dry up! And I will cause your rivers to dry up';

Literal Translation
He says to the deep, Be a waste! And I will dry up your rivers!

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I saye to the grounde: be drie. And I drie vp thy water floudes.

American Standard Version
that saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers;

Bible in Basic English
Who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will make your rivers dry:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
That saith to the deep: 'Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers';

Bishop's Bible (1568)
He saith to the deapth, be drye, and I wyll drye vp water fluddes.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Who says to the deep, Thou shalt be dried up, and I will dry up the rivers.

English Revised Version
that saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and Y seie to the depthe, Be thou desolat, and Y shal make drie thi floodis;

Update Bible Version
that says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers;

Webster's Bible Translation
That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:

New English Translation
who says to the deep sea, ‘Be dry! I will dry up your sea currents,'

New King James Version
Who says to the deep, "Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers';

New Living Translation
When I speak to the rivers and say, ‘Dry up!' they will be dry.

New Life Bible
It is I Who says to the deep sea, ‘Dry up!' And I will dry up your rivers.

New Revised Standard
who says to the deep, "Be dry— I will dry up your rivers";

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Who saith to the deep - Be dry and Thy rivers, will I drain!

Douay-Rheims Bible
Who say to the deep: Be thou desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers.

Revised Standard Version
who says to the deep, 'Be dry, I will dry up your rivers';

Young's Literal Translation
Who is saying to the deep, Be dry, and thy rivers I cause to dry up,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"It is I who says to the depth of the sea, 'Be dried up!' And I will make your rivers dry.

Contextual Overview

²¹ Remember these (O Iacob and Israel) for thou art my seruant: I haue formed thee: thou art my seruant, O Israel; thou shalt not be forgotten of me. ²² I haue blotted out, as a thicke cloude, thy transgressions, and as a a cloud, thy sinnes: returne vnto me, for I haue redeemed thee. ²³ Sing, O yee heauens; for the Lord hath done it: shout yee lower parts of the earth: breake forth into singing yee mountaines, O forrest and euery tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Iacob, and glorified himselfe in Israel. ²⁴ Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the wombe; I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heauens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by my selfe: ²⁵ That frustrateth the tokens of the lyers, and maketh diuiners mad, that turneth wisemen backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish: ²⁶ That confirmeth the word of his seruant, and performeth the counsell of his messengers, that saith to Ierusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Iudah, Yee shall be built, and I will raise vp the decayed places thereof. ²⁷ That saith to the deepe; Be dry, and I will drie vp thy riuers. ²⁸ That saith of Cyrus, Hee is my shepheard, and shall performe all my pleasure, euen saying to Ierusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the Temple, Thy foundation shalbe laid.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Be dry: Isaiah 11:15, Isaiah 11:16, Isaiah 42:15, Isaiah 43:16, Isaiah 51:15, Psalms 74:15, Jeremiah 50:38, Jeremiah 51:32, Jeremiah 51:36, Revelation 16:12

Reciprocal: Joshua 4:22 - General Job 28:11 - bindeth Psalms 107:33 - turneth Proverbs 21:1 - as Isaiah 13:3 - commanded Ezekiel 30:12 - I will make Nahum 1:4 - and drieth

Cross-References

Genesis 29:28
And Iacob did so, and fulfilled her weeke: and he gaue him Rachel his daughter to wife also.

Genesis 44:16
And Iudah said, What shall wee say vnto my lord? what shal we speake? or how shall we cleare our selues? God hath found out the iniquitie of thy seruants: beholde, wee are my lords seruants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found.

Genesis 44:18
Then Iudah came neere vnto him, and said, Oh my lord, let thy seruant, I pray thee, speake a word in my lords eares, & let not thine anger burne against thy seruant: for thou art euen as Pharaoh.

Genesis 44:21
And thou saidst vnto thy seruants, Bring him downe vnto mee, that I may set mine eyes vpon him.

Genesis 44:22
And we said vnto my lord, The lad cannot leaue his father: for if hee should leaue his father, his father would die.

Genesis 44:25
And our father said, Goe againe, and buy vs a little food.

Genesis 46:19
The sonnes of Rachel Iacobs wife: Ioseph, and Beniamin.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

That saith to the deep, be dry,.... The Targum is,

"that saith to Babylon, be desolate;''

and most interpreters, Jewish and Christian, understand it of Babylon, which was situated in a watery place, by rivers of water, particularly the river Euphrates, and in a low valley:

and I will dry up thy rivers; some think the allusion is to the stratagem of Cyrus, made use of, under a divine direction, to drain the river Euphrates, and make it passable for his army; by which means he surprised the city of Babylon, and took it: though others think it refers to the drying up of the Red sea and the river Jordan, which are proofs of what God can do, and a periphrasis of his power.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

That saith to the deep, Be dry - Lowth supposes, that this refers to the fact that Cyrus took Babylon by diverting from their course the waters of the river Euphrates, and thus leaving the bed of the river dry, so that he could march his army under the walls of the city (see the notes at Isaiah 13:0; Isaiah 14:0) With this interpretation, also, Vitringa, John II Michaelis, Grotius, Rosenmuller, and some others, accord. Gesenius supposes that it is a description of the power of God in general; and some others have referred it to the dividing of the waters of the Red Sea when the Hebrews came out of Egypt, as in Isaiah 43:16-17. The most obvious interpretation is that of Lowth, Vitringa, etc., by which it is supposed that it refers to the drying up of the Euphrates and the streams about Babylon, when Cyrus took the city. The principal reasons for this interpretation are, first, that the entire statement in these verses has reference to the events connected with the taking of Babylon; secondly, that it is strikingly descriptive of the manner in which the city was taken by Cyrus; and thirdly, that Cyrus is expressly mentioned Isaiah 44:28, as being concerned in the transaction here referred to. The word rendered ‘deep’ (צוּלה tsûlâh) denotes properly anything sunk; the depth of the sea; an abyss. ‘But it may be applied to a deep river, and especially to the Euphrates, as a deep and mighty stream. In Jeremiah 51:36, the word ‘sea’ is applied to the Euphrates:

‘I will dry up her sea,

And make her springs dry.’

Cyrus took the city of Babylon, after having besieged it a long time in vain, by turning the waters of the river into a vast lake, forty miles square, which had been constructed in order to carry off the superfluous waters in a time of inundation. By doing this, he laid the channel of the river almost dry, and was thus enabled to enter the city above and below, under the walls, and to take it by surprise. The Septuagint renders the word ‘deep’ here by Ἀβύσσῳ Abussō - ‘Abyss.’ The Chaldee, ‘Who says to Babylon, Be desolate, and I will dry up your streams.’

I will dry up thy rivers - Referring doubtless to the numerous canals or artificial streams by which Babylon and the adjacent country were watered. These were supplied from the Euphrates, and when that was diverted from its usual bed, of course they became dry.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 44:27. 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, Jeremiah 50:38; Jeremiah 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 iii. 8; HEROD. i. 186, 190; XENOPHON, Cyrop. vii.; ARRIAN vii.