Find Old Testament references to the parting of the Red Sea

Levi Durfey

What would be the best way to find all the references in the Old Testament to the parting of the Red Sea?

For example,

9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea; (Nehemiah 9:9)

Thanks in advance for the help.

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Comments

William Gabriel

There are only 24 occurrences of Red Sea in the OT, and it doesn't matter if you search via English or Hebrew.

If I do a Bible search for "Red Sea" in the ESV, I get 26 references (2 in the NT). If I do a BWS Lemma search for "יַם־סוּף", I get the same 24 OT references.

That's few enough references that you can scan them and see how they related to the parting of the "Red Sea".

"Red Sea"

ESV
Ex 10:19 X And the LORD turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt.
Ex 13:18 X But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.
Ex 15:4 X “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
Ex 15:22 X Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
Ex 23:31 X And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
Nu 14:25 X Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
Nu 21:4 X From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way.
Nu 33:10 X And they set out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea.
Nu 33:11 X And they set out from the Red Sea and camped in the wilderness of Sin.
Dt 1:40 X But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’
Dt 2:1 X “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the LORD told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir.
Dt 11:4 X and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day,
Jos 2:10 X For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.
Jos 4:23 X For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over,
Jos 24:6 X “ ‘Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.
Jdg 11:16 X but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
1 Ki 9:26 X King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.
Ne 9:9 X “And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea,
Ps 106:7 X Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
Ps 106:9 X He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert.
Ps 106:22 X wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
Ps 136:13 X to him who divided the Red Sea in two, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Ps 136:15 X but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Je 49:21 X At the sound of their fall the earth shall tremble; the sound of their cry shall be heard at the Red Sea.
Ac 7:36 X This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.
Heb 11:29 X By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:47 AM August 21, 2014.

Levi Durfey

But that doesn't include all the references, for example:

13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; And he made the waters to stand as an heap. (Psalm 78:13)

1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; (1 Corinthians 10:1–2)

I was looking for a way to also find the allusions or references without "Red."

I'm sorry I wasn't more clear.

Tanner Thetford

Not at my logos ATM. I'm guessing "Red Sea" isn't a noun option in the morph search?

Mark Barnes

What would be the best way to find all the references in the Old Testament to the parting of the Red Sea?

A search is a good start, as already described. But open the Bible Facts tool to Red Sea as well. Look under the lemmas section, and be sure to click the ellipses to get all the references. You'll get some additional references like Isaiah 11:15, and Psalm 66:6 — and the ones you mention above. You can right click and save them as a passage list.

You can also do a clause search for place:Red Sea, which should give you the same results — although you'll need to search the NT and OT separately.

Levi Durfey

You can also do a clause search for place:Red Sea, which should give you the same results

Thanks Mark, this is what I was looking for.

Allen Browne

Mark's suggestion of a clause search for place:Red Sea is probably all you needed, but here's another suggestion if you really wanted to go further.

In OT thought, the Red Sea is the moment when God delivered of Israel from Pharaoh's enslavement and formed them into his nation. As following generations faced their own struggles, they all looked back to that moment that demonstrated the character of the saving God and their relationship with him (in much the same was as Christians look back to the cross/resurrection as the central event that changes everything for us).

As a result, allusions to the Red Sea are ubiquitous in the OT. To locate where commentators see these allusions, you could create a collection of your favorite OT commentaries (excluding Ex if you wish), and then search that collection for <Ex 14-15> (with the angle brackets). It might take days to process the results, but it would demonstrate the centrality of the Red Sea event in OT thought.

MJ. Smith

Okay ... think about this method:

And report any errors as errors.

Jill Goring

If you just look for 'Red Sea', you'll miss some of the excellent references to this major Old Testament event. For instance, Isaiah refers to it at least twice [43:16, 51:10]. God often reminded Israel of this event--they were so prone to forget ALL His goodness to them!

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

If you just look for 'Red Sea', you'll miss some of the excellent references to this major Old Testament event. For instance, Isaiah refers to it at least twice [43:16, 51:10].

Welcome [:D]

Logos 7 Bible search for <Place Red Sea> includes Isaiah 51:10 in results while search for <Thing Sea> includes Isaiah 43:16

What's New in Logos 6 included updates to Biblical Places and Biblical Things datasets.

Keep Smiling [:)]

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

Bible Browser is a new (since this question was asked) way to find these verses. If you type "red sea" into the Find box, you'll find different approaches to browsing the various ways it's mentioned in the Bible. In this case, reading through "Mentioning Texts" for "The Israelites cross the Red Sea" will find the relevant verses.

David A Egolf

In OT thought, the Red Sea is the moment when God delivered of Israel from Pharaoh's enslavement and formed them into his nation. As following generations faced their own struggles, they all looked back to that moment that demonstrated the character of the saving God and their relationship with him (in much the same was as Christians look back to the cross/resurrection as the central event that changes everything for us).

Our church in Phoenix had a conference this year with some big hitters in the world of theology. I was surprised that my personal take-away, the message that I would remember years from now, came from Trip Lee, the rapper / pastor. He described Israel standing on the bank of the Red Sea looking back and celebrating their deliverance in song. His message was that deliverance is behind us as we move forward.

I suggested to our worship leader that that story would make a great introduction to the song "I am Bound for the Promised Land".