In this verse God’s people move from mythical ideas to God’s actions that were important in their historical memory. Just as God separated the dry land from the sea in Gen 1.9-10, so at the time of the Exodus he made a passage through the sea to let the Israelites escape from Egypt.

Was it not thou that didst dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep…?: This rhetorical question begins in the same way as the previous one (see the comments there). It continues the mythical context and the reference to God’s power over the created world. Here the people say the sea is under God’s control entirely. The sea (yam in Hebrew) is personified in Canaanite mythology as the sea god Yam (see the comments on 23.4 and 27.1). What God did was dry up the sea, which is a possible reference to God dividing the sea to allow the dry land to appear (see Gen 1.9). The waters of the great deep (compare Gen 1.2; 7.11) is parallel to the sea. The Hebrew phrase rendered great deep is usually associated linguistically with the Canaanite god Tiamat. So the people continue to draw from mythical sources to speak of the power of God shown in his control over creation. Good News Translation combines the sea and the waters of the great deep, saying simply “the sea.” If possible, translators should keep parallel expressions here.

That didst make the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over: These two lines refer to the historical event of the Exodus when the people of Israel escaped from their Egyptian masters at the Reed Sea (or, Red Sea; see the comments on 44.27 and 50.2). The depths of the sea refers simply to the bottom of the sea, its deepest parts. The redeemed refers to the Israelites who were rescued by God from Egypt (see the comments on 43.1). There is a clear link in Isaiah between the rescue from Egypt at the time of Exodus and the freeing of the exiles from Babylonia.

For Good News Translation verse 10 speaks only of the Exodus. It rejects the mythical language referring to creation. However, Bible en français courant (1997) keeps both in view, providing this useful model for translation: “Wasn’t it you also who dried the sea, the waters of the great ocean? And you who traced a path in the depths of the sea in order to make those you freed pass through it?” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is similar, but it makes the connection with the Genesis creation story explicit by saying “It was you who in ancient times drove back the floods of the sea, so that the dry land appeared. And it was you who in the middle of the deepest sea made a road, through which your freed people could pass.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders the two parts of the rhetorical question in this verse as two strong statements, which other languages may find helpful (see also the second example below).

Translation examples for this verse are:

• Were you not the one who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep?
Were you not the one who made the bottom of the sea
[into] a path so that the freed people could cross?

• You were the one who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great ocean.
You were the one who made the bottom of the sea
into a way for the rescued ones to cross over.

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 .