In this verse God speaks about his power over the ocean and the rivers that flow into it.

Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry, I will dry up your rivers’: The Hebrew noun rendered the deep is only found here in the Old Testament, so it is difficult to know what it refers to. It may refer to “the deep” mentioned in the creation story at Gen 1.2, but a different Hebrew word is used there. A Hebrew word that is closely related to it occurs in Exo 15.5 (rendered “the depths”). In that passage the Reed Sea (or, Red Sea) is in view. It is likely that the incident of God drying up the waters of that sea is in the background here. This would establish a literary link between the new Exodus from Babylonian exile and the Exodus from Egypt. The deep may be rendered “the ocean” (Good News Translation). Be dry is a command. God can command the ocean to become a dry place.

I will dry up your rivers means God will dry up the rivers that flow into the ocean.

There is another embedded quote within the LORD’s speech here. Good News Translation renders it as indirect speech again, which other languages may find helpful (see also the second example below).

Translation examples for this verse are:

• I say to the ocean depths, ‘Dry up!
I will cause your rivers to become dry.’

• I [can] command the ocean depths to dry up,
and I [can] make its rivers become dry.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .