The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of their way! The water of the Jordan River turned away.
Parallel translations
- WEB The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.
- KJV The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.
- BSB The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;
- NKJV The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back.
- NASB ¶The sea looked and fled; The Jordan turned back.
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
The sea fled and the Jordan turned back before God's people. Creation itself yielded to make a way for His redemption.
Overview
This verse poetically joins two miracles: the parting of the Red Sea at the exodus (Exodus 14) and the Jordan's stopping at the entry to Canaan (Joshua 3). Together they frame Israel's journey from bondage to inheritance. The waters' retreat displays God's sovereign power over creation in the service of saving His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Exod 14:21Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
- Ps 77:16The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.
- Hab 3:8–9Was Yahweh displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers, or your wrath against the sea, that you rode on your horses, on your chariots of salvation?
- Josh 3:13–16It shall be that when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan will be cut off. The waters that come down from above shall stand in one heap.”
- Hab 3:15You trampled the sea with your horses, churning mighty waters.
- Isa 63:12Who caused his glorious arm to be at Moses’ right hand? Who divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name?
- Exod 15:8With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.
- Ps 106:9He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; so he led them through the depths, as through a desert.
- Ps 104:7At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.
- Ps 74:15You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 114:3 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.