What Does Isaiah 11:15 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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 caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.THE THREAD
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.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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