Bible Strands
Psalms 106:9
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the covenant community, recounting the Exodus crossing immediately after affirming that God delivered Israel to establish His own name (106:8). The moment follows the Red Sea event and precedes the account of God's continued protection from hostile forces (106:10).
The words — The Hebrew verb יִגְעַר (yigʿar) means "he rebuked," while תְּהֹמֹת (tehomot) denotes "the deeps" or "the depths." These terms frame the miraculous passage as a divine command that forces the chaotic waters into a dry path.
The thread — This motif of God's rebuke exposing the sea's foundations appears in Psalm 18:15, while the imagery of splitting waters and making a road in the deeps recurs in Psalm 78:13 and Isaiah 51:10.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that God's sovereign word directly controls chaotic natural forces to secure His people's passage. It calls the reader to trust that divine intervention, not human strategy, establishes the way forward.
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 rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
Cross-references
- Psalms 18:15 The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
- Psalms 78:13 He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall.
- Isaiah 51:10 Was it not You who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea for the redeemed to cross over?
- 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,
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Psalms 66:6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the waters on foot; there we rejoiced in Him.
- Psalms 77:19 Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.