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.
Parallel translations
- WEB He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes.
- KJV He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
- NKJV He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, And dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, And the flower of Lebanon wilts.
- NASB He rebukes the sea and dries it up; He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, The blossoms of Lebanon wither.
- NLT At his command the oceans dry up, and the rivers disappear. The lush pastures of Bashan and Carmel fade, and the green forests of Lebanon wither.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God's power dries up seas and rivers and withers the most fertile regions. Creation itself bows before his rebuke.
Overview
Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon were renowned for lush fruitfulness, so their languishing dramatizes the totality of God's might. The drying of the sea recalls the Exodus, when the Lord delivered his people by mastering the waters. The One who commands creation is the same Lord who in Christ stilled the storm, displaying that this divine power belongs to the Son.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Isa 33:9The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
- Ps 106:9He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.
- Isa 50:2–3Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold, My rebuke dries up the sea; I turn the rivers into a desert; the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.
- Isa 19:5–10The waters of the Nile will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and empty.
- Josh 3:13–15When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”
- Isa 51:10Was 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?
- Isa 44:27who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
- Ps 74:15You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
- Ps 114:5Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back,
- Ps 104:7At Your rebuke the waters fled; at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away—
- Ps 114:3The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;
- Matt 8:26“You of little faith,” Jesus replied, “why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it was perfectly calm.
- Amos 1:2He said: “The LORD roars from Zion and raises His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the summit of Carmel withers.”
- Amos 5:8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—
- Ezek 30:12I will make the streams dry up and sell the land to the wicked. By the hands of foreigners I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it. I, the LORD, have spoken.
- Job 38:11and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?
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Christ at the center
The certain judgment on Nineveh and the comfort that 'the LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble' point to Christ, who is both the refuge of his people and the judge of their enemies.
How Nahum 1:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.