What Does Isaiah 51:15 Mean in the King James?
But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
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 sea can roar and still remain within the reach of the one named as your God.
THE MEANING
The verse places the roaring sea beside the words “I am the LORD thy God” without treating its noise as proof of God’s absence. “The LORD of hosts” names the one whose authority holds even the sea’s tumult.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Turbulence means God is absent or has lost control.
THE ROOT
רֹגַע
rōgaʿ
GROWS FROM
רגע
To stir or agitate; in causative forms, to quiet or give rest.
“divided” in this verse is rōgaʿ. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of stirring the sea, adding motion to the image of its division. Its related forms can also describe quieting, so the root holds both the sea’s agitation and its rest.
ALSO GROWS
rōgaʿ: Stirring or agitating; the form used here for the sea.
רֹגַע
This form places God’s action alongside the waves’ roar: the sea’s motion remains within the verse’s picture of divine authority.
hirgîaʿ: To quiet or give rest.
הִרְגִּיעַ
This causative form shares the root’s connection to the sea’s stirring while naming the movement toward quiet.
וַיֶּהֱמוּ
vayehĕmû
GROWS FROM
המה
To murmur, roar, or make a tumultuous sound.
“roared” in this verse is vayehĕmû. The verb gives the waves a living, unsettled sound. Its branches also describe the din of a multitude, linking the sea’s roar with the noise of many gathered voices.
ALSO GROWS
hāmôn: A multitude, din, or tumult.
הָמוֹן
The shared root lets the roar of the waves carry the sense of a great, noisy multitude.
hamiyyāh: Murmuring, roaring, or tumult.
הֲמִיָּה
This related noun keeps the sound of the waves within the same family of restless noise.
THE PATTERN
The sea can remain loud while still being bounded by divine authority.
Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.THE THREAD
Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:Jeremiah uses the same Hebrew verb, רֹגַע (rōgaʿ, to stir or agitate), for the sea and repeats the image of roaring waves beside “The LORD of hosts is his name.” The shared wording places the sea’s unrest within the same ordered world as the lights of day and night.
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