Isaiah 44:27 Study Bible: who says to the deep, 'Be dry,' and 'I will dry up your rivers;'

◄ Isaiah 44:27 ►

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

who says
This phrase emphasizes the authority and sovereignty of God. In the Hebrew text, the word used is "אָמַר" (amar), which means "to say" or "to declare." This is not a mere suggestion but a command from the Creator. It reflects the power of God's word, reminiscent of the creation narrative in Genesis where God speaks things into existence. The authority of God's word is a central theme throughout Scripture, underscoring His ability to bring about His will.

to the depths of the sea
The "depths of the sea" symbolize chaos and the unknown in ancient Near Eastern thought. The Hebrew word "תְּהוֹם" (tehom) is often used to describe the deep waters, which were seen as a place of mystery and danger. In the context of Isaiah, this phrase can be seen as a metaphor for the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that God can overcome. Historically, the sea was a formidable barrier, yet God demonstrates His power over it, as seen in the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus.

'Be dry,'
The command "Be dry" is a demonstration of God's miraculous intervention in the natural world. The Hebrew word "חָרֵב" (charev) means "to be dry" or "to be parched." This is a direct command that showcases God's ability to alter the natural order. It is reminiscent of the miracles performed during the Exodus, where God made a way for His people through the sea. This phrase reassures believers of God's power to make a way where there seems to be none.

and I will dry up
This phrase further emphasizes God's active role in the transformation of the natural world. The repetition of the concept of drying up reinforces the certainty and completeness of God's action. The Hebrew root "יָבֵשׁ" (yavesh) means "to dry up" or "to wither," indicating a thorough and decisive action. This is a promise of deliverance and a demonstration of God's control over creation.

your currents
The "currents" refer to the natural flow and movement of the sea, which in the Hebrew text is "נְהָרוֹת" (neharot), meaning "rivers" or "streams." This imagery conveys the idea of God halting the natural forces that seem unstoppable. In a broader sense, it symbolizes God's ability to stop the forces of chaos and opposition in the lives of His people. Historically, this could also allude to the drying up of the Euphrates River, facilitating the conquest of Babylon, as prophesied by Isaiah. This serves as a powerful reminder of God's providence and His ability to fulfill His promises against all odds.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Isaiah
A major prophet in the Old Testament, Isaiah is the author of the book that bears his name. He prophesied during the reigns of several kings of Judah and is known for his messages of both judgment and hope.

2. The Sea and Rivers
In this verse, the sea and rivers symbolize obstacles or barriers that God has the power to remove. The imagery of drying up waters is often used in the Bible to demonstrate God's sovereignty over creation.

3. Cyrus the Great
Although not mentioned directly in this verse, the context of Isaiah 44 and 45 includes prophecies about Cyrus, the Persian king who would conquer Babylon and allow the Israelites to return to Jerusalem. The drying up of rivers can be seen as a metaphor for the ease with which God would enable Cyrus to achieve his purposes.

Teaching Points

God's Sovereignty Over Creation
God has absolute control over the natural world. Just as He can dry up seas and rivers, He can remove any obstacle in our lives according to His will.

Divine Intervention in Human Affairs
The imagery of drying up waters symbolizes God's intervention in history. Believers can trust that God is actively involved in the world and in their personal lives.

Fulfillment of God's Promises
The context of this verse points to the fulfillment of God's promises to His people. We can have confidence that God will fulfill His promises to us, even when circumstances seem insurmountable.

Preparation for Deliverance
Just as God prepared the way for the Israelites' return from exile, He prepares the way for our deliverance from spiritual and physical challenges.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the imagery of God drying up the sea and rivers in Isaiah 44:27 enhance our understanding of His power and authority?

2. In what ways can we see God's sovereignty over creation in our daily lives, and how should this influence our faith?

3. Reflect on a time when you experienced a "drying up of rivers" in your life, where God removed obstacles. How did this impact your relationship with Him?

4. How does the fulfillment of God's promises in the Bible, such as the return from exile, encourage you to trust in His promises today?

5. Compare the events of Exodus 14 and Joshua 3 with Isaiah 44:27. What common themes do you see, and how do they apply to your current life situation?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Exodus 14
The parting of the Red Sea is a direct demonstration of God's power over the waters, similar to the imagery in Isaiah 44:27. This connection highlights God's ability to deliver His people by removing natural barriers.

Joshua 3
The crossing of the Jordan River by the Israelites is another instance where God dries up waters to fulfill His promises, reinforcing the theme of divine intervention and guidance.

Revelation 16
The drying up of the Euphrates River in Revelation is a prophetic act that prepares the way for future events, showing continuity in the theme of God's control over natural elements to accomplish His purposes.

Sermons

Jehovah and the Images	E. Johnson	Isaiah 44:6-28
Joy in God's Redeeming Power	W. Clarkson	Isaiah 44:23-28

People

Cyrus, Isaiah, Jacob

Places

Israel, Jerusalem

Topics

Cause, Deep, Depth, Dried, Dry, Rivers, Saying, Says, Streams, Watery

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Isaiah 44:27

4227 deep, the

Isaiah 44:21-28

6722 redemption, OT

Isaiah 44:24-27

4819 dryness

Isaiah 44:24-28

6708 predestination

Library

Feeding on Ashes
'He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?'--ISAIAH xliv. 20. The prophet has been pouring fierce scorn on idolaters. They make, he says, the gods they worship. They take a tree and saw it up: one log serves for a fire to cook their food, and with compass and pencil and plane they carve the figure of a man, and then they bow down to it and say, 'Deliver me, for thou art my god!' He sums up the whole …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Writing Blotted Out and Mist Melted
'I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.'--ISAIAH xliv. 22. Isaiah has often and well been called the Evangelical Prophet. Many parts of this second half of his prophecies referring to the Messiah read like history rather than prediction. But it is not only from the clearness with which the great figure of the future king of Israel stands out on his page that he deserves that title. Other thoughts belonging to the very substance of the gospel appear in …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Jacob --Israel --Jeshurun
'Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen.... Fear not, O Jacob, My servant; and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. --ISAIAH xliv. 1, 2. You observe that there are here three different names applied to the Jewish nation. Two of them, namely Jacob and Israel, were borne by their great ancestor, and by him transmitted to his descendants. The third was never borne by him, and is applied to the people only here and in the Book of Deuteronomy. The occurrence of all three here …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Source of My Spirit's Deep Desire
"I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground." -- Isaiah 44:8. Source of my spirit's deep desire For living joys that shall not perish, The patient hope Thy words inspire, Still let Thy tender mercy cherish. On Thee my humbled soul would wait, Her utmost weakness calmly learning, And see Thy grace its way create, Through thorns and briers which Thou art burning. Gladly my inmost heart would know The love that now it faintly traces, And see the streams from Zion flow …
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations

To the Afflicted, Tossed with Tempests and not Comforted. Isa 44:5-11
To the afflicted, tossed with tempests and not comforted. Isa 44:5-11 Pensive, doubting, fearful heart, Hear what CHRIST the Savior says; Every word should joy impart, Change thy mourning into praise: Yes, he speaks, and speaks to thee, May he help thee to believe! Then thou presently wilt see, Thou hast little cause to grieve. "Fear thou not, nor be ashamed, All thy sorrows soon shall end I who heav'n and earth have framed, Am thy husband and thy friend I the High and Holy One, Israel's GOD by …
John Newton—Olney Hymns

Fourteenth Day for the Church of the Future
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Church of the Future "That the children might not be as their fathers, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God."--PS. lxxviii. 8. "I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thy offspring."--ISA. xliv. 3. Pray for the rising generation, who are to come after us. Think of the young men and young women and children of this age, and pray for all the agencies at work among them; that in association and societies …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

The Nature of Justification
Justification in the active sense (iustificatio, {GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA}) is defined by the Tridentine Council as "a translation from that state wherein man is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace and of the adoption of the sons of God through the second Adam, …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual

Catalogue of his Works.
There is no absolutely complete edition of Eusebius' extant works. The only one which can lay claim even to relative completeness is that of Migne: Eusebii Pamphili, Cæsareæ Palestinæ Episcopi, Opera omnia quæ extant, curis variorum, nempe: Henrici Valesii, Francisci Vigeri, Bernardi Montfauconii, Card. Angelo Maii edita; collegit et denuo recognovit J. P. Migne. Par. 1857. 6 vols. (tom. XIX.-XXIV. of Migne's Patrologia Græca). This edition omits the works which are …
Eusebius Pamphilius—Church History

Moses' Prayer to be Blotted Out of God's Book.
"And Moses returned unto the Lord and said. Oh! this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou--wilt, forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray they, out of thy book which than hast written." In the preceding discourse we endeavored to show that the idea of being willing to be damned for the glory of God is not found in the text--that the sentiment is erroneous and absurd--then adduced the constructions which have been put on the text by sundry expositors, …
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects

Centenary Commemoration
OF THE RETURN OF BISHOP SEABURY. 1885 THE RT. REV. SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D. FIRST BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT, HELD HIS FIRST ORDINATION AT MIDDLETOWN, AUGUST 3, 1785. On the ninth day of June, 1885, the Diocesan Convention met in Hartford. Morning Prayer was read in Christ Church at 9 o'clock by the Rev. W. E. Vibbert, D.D., Rector of St. James's Church, Fair Haven, and the Rev. J. E. Heald, Rector of Trinity Church, Tariffville. The Holy Communion was celebrated in St. John's Church, the service beginning …
Various—The Sermons And Addresses At The Seabury Centenary

"But if Ye have Bitter Envying and Strife in Your Hearts, Glory Not," &C.
James iii. 14.--"But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not," &c. It is a common evil of those who hear the gospel, that they are not delivered up to the mould and frame of religion that is holden out in it, but rather bring religion into a mould of their own invention. It was the special commendation of the Romans, that they obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which they were delivered, (Rom. vi. 17) that they who were once servants, or slaves of sin, had now …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Impiety of Attributing a visible Form to God. --The Setting up of Idols a Defection from the True God.
1. God is opposed to idols, that all may know he is the only fit witness to himself. He expressly forbids any attempt to represent him by a bodily shape. 2. Reasons for this prohibition from Moses, Isaiah, and Paul. The complaint of a heathen. It should put the worshipers of idols to shame. 3. Consideration of an objection taken from various passages in Moses. The Cherubim and Seraphim show that images are not fit to represent divine mysteries. The Cherubim belonged to the tutelage of the Law. 4. …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

The Unity of God
Q-5: ARE THERE MORE GODS THAN ONE? A: There is but one only, the living and true God. That there is a God has been proved; and those that will not believe the verity of his essence, shall feel the severity of his wrath. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' Deut 6:6. He is the only God.' Deut 4:49. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else.' A just God and a Saviour; there is none beside …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Hiram, the Inspired Artificer
BY REV. W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D. The Temple of Solomon was the crown of art in the old world. There were temples on a larger scale, and of more massive construction, but the enormous masses of masonry of the oldest nations were not comparable with the artistic grace, the luxurious adornments, and the harmonious proportions of this glorious House of God. David had laid up money and material for the great work, but he was not permitted to carry it out. He was a man of war, and blood-stained hands were …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

A Few Sighs from Hell;
or, The Groans of the Damned Soul: or, An Exposition of those Words in the Sixteenth of Luke, Concerning the Rich Man and the Beggar WHEREIN IS DISCOVERED THE LAMENTABLE STATE OF THE DAMNED; THEIR CRIES, THEIR DESIRES IN THEIR DISTRESSES, WITH THE DETERMINATION OF GOD UPON THEM. A GOOD WARNING WORD TO SINNERS, BOTH OLD AND YOUNG, TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION BETIMES, AND TO SEEK, BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, TO AVOID, LEST THEY COME INTO THE SAME PLACE OF TORMENT. Also, a Brief Discourse touching the …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

In the Last, the Great Day of the Feast'
IT was the last, the great day of the Feast,' and Jesus was once more in the Temple. We can scarcely doubt that it was the concluding day of the Feast, and not, as most modern writers suppose, its Octave, which, in Rabbinic language, was regarded as a festival by itself.' [3987] [3988] But such solemn interest attaches to the Feast, and this occurrence on its last day, that we must try to realise the scene. We have here the only Old Testament type yet unfilfilled; the only Jewish festival which has …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Song of the Redeemed
And they sung a new song, saying, Thou ... hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ... T he extent, variety, and order of the creation, proclaim the glory of God. He is likewise, ^* Maximus in Minimis . The smallest of the works, that we are capable of examining, such for instance as the eye or the wing of a little insect, the creature of a day, are stamped with an inimitable impression of His wisdom and power. Thus in His written Word, there …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

Of the Decrees of God.
Eph. i. 11.--"Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."--Job xxiii. 13. "He is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth." Having spoken something before of God, in his nature and being and properties, we come, in the next place, to consider his glorious majesty, as he stands in some nearer relation to his creatures, the work of his hands. For we must conceive the first rise of all things in the world to be in this self-being, the first conception …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Third Stage of the Roman Trial. Pilate Reluctantly Sentences Him to Crucifixion.
(Friday. Toward Sunrise.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 15-30; ^B Mark XV. 6-19; ^C Luke XXIII. 13-25; ^D John XVIII. 39-XIX 16. ^a 15 Now at the feast [the passover and unleavened bread] the governor was wont { ^b used to} release unto them ^a the multitude one prisoner, whom they would. { ^b whom they asked of him.} [No one knows when or by whom this custom was introduced, but similar customs were not unknown elsewhere, both the Greeks and Romans being wont to bestow special honor upon certain occasions by releasing …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Water of Life;
OR, A DISCOURSE SHOWING THE RICHNESS AND GLORY OF THE GRACE AND SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL, AS SET FORTH IN SCRIPTURE BY THIS TERM, THE WATER OF LIFE. BY JOHN BUNYAN. 'And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.'--Revelation 22:17 London: Printed for Nathanael Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1688. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Often, and in every age, the children of God have dared to doubt the sufficiency of divine grace; whether it was vast enough to reach their condition--to cleanse …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Being of God
Q-III: WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES PRINCIPALLY TEACH? A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Q-IV: WHAT IS GOD? A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Here is, 1: Something implied. That there is a God. 2: Expressed. That he is a Spirit. 3: What kind of Spirit? I. Implied. That there is a God. The question, What is God? takes for granted that there …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

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