What Does Isaiah 11:15 Mean?
And the LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea. He will wave his hand over the river with his strong breath, and strike it into seven channels, and make men tread across in sandals.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.THE KEY
The river is struck into seven streams, turning the barrier itself into crossings.
THE MEANING
The LORD meets a blocked way with the Hebrew רוּחַ (ruach), meaning wind and breath, and the waters lose their hold on the passage. The sea’s tongue is destroyed, the river is struck into seven streams, and people pass with sure footing. Deliverance appears as a way opened through the obstruction, carrying movement from constriction toward spaciousness.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
ruach
Moving air; breath.
English can separate wind outside the body from breath within it, but this Hebrew word holds those senses together. The force moving the river is named with the same word used for breath in a body.
ALSO GROWS
rucho: His wind; his breath.
רוּחוֹ
The possessive form identifies the wind in this verse as the LORD’s own.
ruhot: Winds; breaths.
רוּחוֹת
The plural keeps wind and breath in the same word-family even when they move in many currents.
וְהֵנִיף
vehenif
GROWS FROM
נוף
nuf
To wave, lift, or swing back and forth.
The word rendered “shake” also carries the sense of waving or lifting a hand. Its root appears in the name for a wave offering, linking the hand’s sweeping gesture over the river with a wider family of presentation and movement.
ALSO GROWS
henif: He waved or lifted.
הֵנִיף
This is the motion used in the verse: a hand moved over the river.
tenufah: A wave offering; a presentation made with a waving gesture.
תְּנוּפָה
The same root names an act of presenting by waving, showing that the motion carries more than the idea of trembling.
THE PATTERN
Waters that block passage are made traversable by a way opened through them.
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD made the sea go back by a strong breath of the east all that night, and made the sea dry ground, and the waters were split.And the priests who lifted the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood steady on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had finished crossing over Jordan.By trust they stepped across the Red Sea as over dry land, which the Egyptians, making the attempt, were swallowed down.THE THREAD
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD made the sea go back by a strong breath of the east all that night, and made the sea dry ground, and the waters were split.Exodus uses the same Hebrew רוּחַ (ruach), meaning wind and breath, to name the force that divides the sea. Isaiah brings that wind and the raised hand together again, showing the same passage-opening movement at the river.
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