Bible Strands
Isaiah 41:18
I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks directly to the poor and needy who have sought water and found none (v. 17), answering their thirst before it is resolved.
The words — 'ef.Tach (אֶפְתַּח, "I will open") treats the rivers as something sealed shut rather than merely absent, as if the land has been locked and God is unlocking it.
The thread — The same image recurs in Psalms 107:35 and Isaiah 35:6, where wilderness waters signal divine reversal of desolation.
Why it lands — The verse places the entire transformation on God's word alone; the reader is asked to accept that a spoken promise is sufficient cause for what has not yet appeared.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
- Psalms 107:35 He turns a desert into pools of water and a dry land into flowing springs.
- Isaiah 58:11 The LORD will always guide you; He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
- Isaiah 30:25 And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.
- Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
- Ezekiel 47:1 Then the man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar.
- Revelation 7:17 For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”
- Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.
- Isaiah 32:2 Each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in a dry land, like the shadow of a great rock in an arid land.
- Isaiah 49:9 to say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed along the pathways, and find pasture on every barren hill.