Bible Strands
Nehemiah 9:11
You divided the sea before them, and they crossed through it on dry ground. You hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into raging waters.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses God directly, recounting the Exodus deliverance during a corporate recitation of Israel’s history. This moment follows a declaration of God’s enduring reputation in Nehemiah 9:10 and precedes the description of the pillar of cloud and fire in Nehemiah 9:12.
The words — The Hebrew verb בָּקַ֣עְתָּ (baqa‘ta) means “you split open,” describing the physical division of הַיָּם (hayyam, “the sea”) to create a dry path. The text states the literal action of splitting and crossing before noting the pursuers were hurled into the depths.
The thread — This event mirrors the crossing account in Exodus 14:21 and Exodus 14:27, where the sea is driven back and later returns to its normal state. It also aligns with the upright water imagery in Psalms 78:13.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition of divine intervention that physically separates the pursued from the pursuers. It requires the reader to acknowledge that survival depends on God’s decisive action rather than human strategy.
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
And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
Cross-references
- Psalms 78:13 He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall.
- 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 divided,
- Exodus 14:27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal state. As the Egyptians were retreating, the LORD swept them into the sea.
- Psalms 66:6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the waters on foot; there we rejoiced in Him.
- Psalms 106:9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.
- Psalms 114:3 The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;
- Psalms 136:13 He divided the Red Sea in two His loving devotion endures forever.
- Isaiah 63:11 Then His people remembered the days of old, the days of Moses. Where is He who brought them through the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is the One who set His Holy Spirit among them,
- Hebrews 11:29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were drowned.
- Exodus 15:1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted. The horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.