What Does Psalm 78:13 Mean?
He split the sea and walked them through, and made the waters stand up like a mound.
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
He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.THE KEY
The sea is not removed; its waters are held apart so an opening itself becomes the way through.
THE MEANING
A boundary that feels impassable can become a passage without ceasing to exist. The waters remain, but they are held back as the people pass through. Deliverance here is space opened within what blocks the way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a way forward requires every obstacle to disappear: here the waters remain, yet a route opens through them.
THE ROOT
וַיְבַקַּע
wayvaqqaʿ
GROWS FROM
בקע
to split or cleave open
The verb for dividing the sea comes from a root of opening by a split. Its branches can describe both a cleft in the land and a measured half, linking the opening of a way with division itself.
ALSO GROWS
biqʿah: A valley or open plain; a word associated with a cleft or opened stretch of land.
בִּקְעָה
The same root that describes the sea opening can name an opening in the land.
beqaʿ: A half-shekel measure.
בֶּקַע
The root’s sense of division also appears in a measured portion: what is split can become a defined share.
וַיַּעֲבִירֵם
wayyaʿavirem
GROWS FROM
עבר
to cross over or pass through
“walked them through” in this verse is wayyaʿavirem. The verse places crossing beside splitting: the opening is not the end of the action but the space through which movement happens. The root also forms words for the far side and for a passage, carrying both the crossing and its destination.
ALSO GROWS
ʿever: The far side or what lies across.
עֵבֶר
The verb of crossing shares its root with the place reached by crossing.
maʿavar: A passage, crossing, or ford.
מַעֲבָר
The crossing root can name the route itself, as the divided sea becomes a way through.
THE PATTERN
A barrier becomes a passage when it is opened and held aside.
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.Thus says the LORD, who sets a way in the sea, and a trodden path in the strong waters.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.Both verses use בקע (baqaʿ, split open) for the sea’s division. Exodus shows the opening taking place; the psalm pairs that opening with עָבַר (ʿavar, cross over), making the passage through explicit.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us