Bible Strands
Nahum 1:4
He rebukes the sea and dries it up; He makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon wilts.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh declares His sovereign judgment through the prophet Nahum amid a theophanic description of His approach. This declaration occurs between statements of His patience, wrath, and the cosmic trembling at His presence.
The words — גּוֹעֵ֤ר (go.'Er) translates as "[he is] rebuking" [H1605], and אֻמְלַ֤ל ('um.Lal) translates as "it withers" [H535]. These terms anchor the verse's dual focus on divine command and terrestrial response.
The thread — The motif of divine rebuke drying waters appears in Psalms 106:9 and Isaiah 33:9, where Lebanon, Bashan, and Carmel similarly mourn or decay. These passages share Nahum 1:4's pattern of creation's submission to Yahweh's authority.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that Yahweh's power operates through both commanding nature and allowing it to wither. A reader must acknowledge that cosmic order depends entirely on His will, not human control.
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
He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
Cross-references
- Psalms 106:9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.
- 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.
- Joshua 3:13 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 stand up in a heap.”
- Psalms 74:15 You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
- Psalms 104:7 At Your rebuke the waters fled; at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away—
- Psalms 114:3 The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;
- Psalms 114:5 Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back,
- Isaiah 19:5 The waters of the Nile will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and empty.
- Isaiah 44:27 who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
- Isaiah 50:2 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, My rebuke dries up the sea; I turn the rivers into a desert; the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.