Sea

The sea is a created body of water bounded and named at the beginning, the western edge of the Promised Land, the southern barrier crossed at the exodus, the inland lakes that frame Israel's geography, the deep that praises and trembles before Yahweh, and the chaos figure that John finally sees abolished. Scripture treats the sea both as a place on the map and as a symbol — a creature subject to its Maker's word, with sand for its bound and a fixed point past which its waves cannot pass.

Creation and Naming of the Seas

Genesis records the gathering of the waters and the naming of the sea on the third day: "And [the Speech of] God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And [the Speech of] God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas: and God saw that it was good" (Ge 1:9-10). The Psalter confesses that the sea remains his by right of making: "The sea is his, and he made it; And his hands formed the dry land" (Ps 95:5). Even the waters above the heavens are summoned to praise: "Praise him, you⁺ heavens of heavens, And you⁺ waters that are [by the Speech] above the heavens. Let them praise the name of Yahweh; For he commanded, and they were created" (Ps 148:4-5).

The Deep

Behind the named sea lies the deep, the formless water that opens Genesis: "And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Ge 1:2). The deep has a voice in Habakkuk's theophany — "The mountains saw you, and were afraid; The tempest of waters passed by; The deep uttered its voice, And lifted up its hands on high" (Hab 3:10) — and in the Psalter answers itself across the cataracts: "Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls: All your waves and your billows have gone over me" (Ps 42:7). It is the place of Yahweh's wonders for those who travel on it: "These see the works of Yahweh, And his wonders in the deep" (Ps 107:24). Sirach contemplates the same vastness as a creaturely thing: "By his counsel he has stilled the great deep, And has planted islands in the midst of the deep. Those who go down to the sea declare its bounds, And when our ears hear it we marvel. In it are marvels, the wonders of his works, All manner of living things, and mighty things of the deep" (Sir 43:23-25). Paul's own catalog of suffering names the deep as a literal danger: "Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep" (2Co 11:25).

The Bound Set for the Waves

Scripture insists that the sea is no rival to its Maker. Yahweh sets the limit at creation: "Don't you⁺ fear me? says Yahweh: Will you⁺ not tremble before my [Speech], who has placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? And though its waves toss themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar, yet they can't pass over it" (Jer 5:22). Job hears the same decree spoken to the sea itself: "And said, This far you will come, but no further; And here will your proud waves be placed?" (Job 38:11). Isaiah names the agent who stirs and bounds them: "For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar: Yahweh of hosts is his name" (Is 51:15). The Psalter answers in worship: "Who stills the roaring of the seas, The roaring of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples" (Ps 65:7); and again, "He makes the storm be calm, So that its waves are still" (Ps 107:29).

The Great Sea on the West

The Mediterranean — "the great sea" — runs the whole western frontier of the land Yahweh allots. The grant to Joshua reaches that far: "From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, will be your⁺ border" (Jos 1:4). The kings west of the Jordan are gathered "on all the shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon" (Jos 9:1). Judah's allotment runs to the same line: "And the west border was to the great sea, and the border [of it]. This is the border of the sons of Judah round about according to their families" (Jos 15:12). Joshua's parting speech repeats the limit: "Look, I have allotted to you⁺ these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your⁺ tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun" (Jos 23:4). Numbers fixes the western border in the same words: "And for the western border, you⁺ will have the great sea and the neighboring area: this will be your⁺ west border" (Nu 34:6). Ezekiel's restored land reuses the language for the southern limit — "the border will be even from Tamar, the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the brook [of Egypt], to the great sea" (Eze 48:28) — and for the abundance of fish in the renewed waters: "And it will come to pass, that fishers will stand by it: from En-gedi even to En-eglaim will be a place for the spreading of nets; their fish will be after their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many" (Eze 47:10).

The Salt Sea on the East

The eastern boundary is a different sea — the Salt Sea, the sea of the Arabah, the lake into which the Jordan empties. Genesis identifies it at the battle of the kings: "All these joined together in the valley of Siddim (the same is the Salt Sea)" (Ge 14:3). It anchors the land grant on the south and east: "then your⁺ south quarter will be from the wilderness of Zin along by the side of Edom, and your⁺ south border will be from the end of the Salt Sea eastward" (Nu 34:3); "the Arabah also, and the Jordan and the border [of it], from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward" (De 3:17); "and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah" (De 4:49). When Israel crosses the Jordan, the river is held back at this very lake's mouth: "those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho" (Jos 3:16). Judah's tribal line runs from the same point: "And the east border was the Salt Sea, even to the end of the Jordan. And the border of the north quarter was from the bay of the sea at the end of the Jordan" (Jos 15:5). Joel and Zechariah look to a future day when living water reaches both seas: Yahweh will "drive it into a land barren and desolate, its forepart into the eastern sea, and its hinder part into the western sea" (Joel 2:20); and "living waters will go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea: in summer and in winter it will be" (Zec 14:8).

The Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee)

The inland lake to the north has its own name in the older books — Chinnereth, later called the sea of Galilee. The land grant runs "the Arabah to the sea of Chinneroth, eastward, and to the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, eastward" (Jos 12:3); and the eastern border is fixed by the same lake: "and the border will go down from Shepham [to] Harbelah, on the east side of Ain; and the border will go down, and will reach to the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward" (Nu 34:11). On this same lake the Gospel records Jesus rebuking a storm: "And there rises a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the boat, insomuch that the boat was now filling. And he himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion: and they wake him, and say to him, Teacher, don't you care that we perish? And he awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (Mr 4:37-39). The bound that Jeremiah and Job named is enforced here at a word.

The Crossing of the Red Sea

The southern frontier is the Red Sea, and there Israel was rescued out of Egypt. The plague of locusts ends in it: "And Yahweh turned an exceedingly strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea; not one locust remained in all the border of Egypt" (Ex 10:19). At Yahweh's order Moses turns the camp back to its shore: "Speak to the sons of Israel, that they turn back and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon: across from it you⁺ will encamp by the sea" (Ex 14:2). Yahweh later sets the southern boundary at the same body: "And I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your⁺ hand: and you will drive them out before you" (Ex 23:31). At the camp in the wilderness the sea even sends quail: "And a wind went forth from Yahweh, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on this side, and a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and about two cubits above the face of the earth" (Nu 11:31). Joshua names the Red Sea crossing as the precedent for the Jordan: "For Yahweh your⁺ God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you⁺, until you⁺ had passed over, as Yahweh your⁺ God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we had passed over" (Jos 4:23). The Maccabean recital makes the same crossing a paradigm of rescue: "Remember in what manner our fathers were saved in the Red Sea, when Pharaoh pursued them with an army" (1Ma 4:9). Isaiah reads the deliverance back into a future act: "And Yahweh will completely destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will strike it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals" (Is 11:15).

The Sea Dried Up for Yahweh's Redeemed

The prophets and the Psalter rehearse the crossing as a deed Yahweh repeats. Isaiah recalls it as a question: "Is it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?" (Is 51:10). And again: "Who led them through the depths, as a horse in the wilderness, so that they did not stumble?" (Is 63:13). Zechariah names the same act for the gathered exiles: "And he will pass through the sea of affliction, and will strike the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the Nile will dry up; and the pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt will depart" (Zec 10:11).

The Sea in Apocalyptic Vision

In the prophets and in John, the sea also bears a symbolic load. Daniel sees the world-empires emerge from it: "Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, look, the four winds of heaven broke forth on the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another" (Da 7:2-3). John sees the same image again: "And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and on his heads a name of blasphemy" (Re 13:1). Before Yahweh's throne, by contrast, the sea is glass: "and before the throne, as it were a sea of glass like crystal" (Re 4:6); and the conquerors stand "by the sea of glass, having harps of God" (Re 15:2). When the trumpets and bowls fall, the sea is struck: "as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and there died the third part of the creatures having souls in the sea; and the third part of the ships were destroyed" (Re 8:8-9); "And the second poured out his bowl into the sea; and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living soul in the sea died" (Re 16:3). The strong angel of Revelation 10 stands astride land and sea and swears by him "who created the heaven and the things that are in it, and the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there will be delay no longer" (Re 10:6); his right foot is "on the sea, and his left on the earth" (Re 10:2), and the seer is told to take the open book "in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth" (Re 10:8).

The Dead Given Up and the Sea No More

At the resurrection the sea releases what it holds: "And the sea gave up the dead who were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works" (Re 20:13). Then the new creation supersedes the old, and the bound water that Genesis named is gone: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away; and the sea is no more" (Re 21:1).