Isaiah 37:25

New American Standard Bible (1995)

'I dug wells and drank waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.'

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I dug wells and drank water in foreign lands.I dried up all the streams of Egyptwith the soles of my feet.”

Hebrew Names Version
I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Mitzrayim.

King James Version
I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.

English Standard Version
I dug wells and drank waters, to dry up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.

New American Standard Bible
'I dug wells and drank waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the canals of Egypt.'

New Century Version
I have dug wells in foreign countries and drunk water there. By the soles of my feet, I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt."

Amplified Bible
'I dug wells and drank [foreign] waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the canals [of the Nile] of Egypt.'

World English Bible
I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

Geneva Bible (1587)
I haue digged and drunke the waters, and with the plant of my feete haue I dryed all the riuers closed in.

Legacy Standard Bible
I dug wells and drank waters,And with the sole of my feet I dried upAll the rivers of Egypt.'

Berean Standard Bible
I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt."

Contemporary English Version
I dried up every stream in the land of Egypt, and I drank water from wells I had dug."

Complete Jewish Bible
I dug [wells] and drank the water. The soles of my [soldiers'] feet dried up all the rivers of Egypt."

Darby Translation
I have digged and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the streams of Matsor.

Easy-to-Read Version
I dug wells and drank water from new places. I dried up the rivers of Egypt and walked where the water was."

George Lamsa Translation
I will dig, and drink water; and with the hoofs of my horses will I dry up all the great rivers.

Good News Translation
You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands, and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.

Lexham English Bible
I myself dug and drank waters, and I caused all the streams of Egypt to dry up by the sole of my feet."

Literal Translation
I have dug and drunk water; and I have dried up the streams of Egypt with the sole of my feet.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf there be no water, I wil graue & drynke. And as for waters of defence, I shal drie them vp with the fete of myne hooste.

American Standard Version
I have digged and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

Bible in Basic English
I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
I have digged and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of Egypt.

King James Version (1611)
I haue digged and drunke water, and with the sole of my feete haue I dried vp all the riuers of the besieged places.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
If there be no water, I wyll graue and drynke: and as for waters of defence, I wyll drye them vp with the feete of myne hoast.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and I have made a bridge, and dried up the waters, and every pool of water.

English Revised Version
I have digged and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y diggide, and drank watir; and Y made drie with the step of my foot all the strondis of feeldis.

Update Bible Version
I have dug and drank water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

Webster's Bible Translation
I have digged, and drank water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.

New English Translation
I dug wells and drank water. With the soles of my feet I dried up all the rivers of Egypt.'

New King James Version
I have dug and drunk water, And with the soles of my feet I have dried up All the brooks of defense.'

New Living Translation
I have dug wells in many foreign lands and refreshed myself with their water. With the sole of my foot, I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!'

New Life Bible
I dug wells in strange lands and drank water there. With the bottom of my feet I dried up all the rivers of Egypt.'

New Revised Standard
I dug wells and drank waters, I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.'

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I, have digged, and drunk waters, - That I may dry up, with the soles of my feet, all the Nile-streams of Egypt.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I have digged, and drunk water, and have dried up with the sole of my foot, all the rivers shut up in banks.

Revised Standard Version
I dug wells and drank waters, and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.

Young's Literal Translation
I -- I have dug and drunk waters, And I dry up with the sole of my steps All floods of a bulwark.

Contextual Overview

²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²² this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: "She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem! ²³ "Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! ²⁴ "Through your servants you have reproached the Lord, And you have said, 'With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest. ²⁵ 'I dug wells and drank waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.'²⁶ "Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. ²⁷ "Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up. ²⁸ "But I know your sitting down And your going out and your coming in And your raging against Me. ²⁹ "Because of your raging against Me And because your arrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you came. ³⁰ "Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

with the sole: Isaiah 36:12, 1 Kings 20:10, 2 Kings 19:23, 2 Kings 19:24

besieged: or, fenced and closed

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 20:1 - horses 2 Chronicles 32:1 - win them Job 28:11 - bindeth Job 40:23 - drinketh Psalms 94:4 - boast Isaiah 19:6 - and the Isaiah 26:6 - General Ezekiel 38:11 - go up Daniel 4:30 - that Nahum 3:14 - Draw

Cross-References

Genesis 31:21
So he fled with all that he had; and he arose and crossed the Euphrates River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

Genesis 31:23
then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days' journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.

Genesis 37:1
Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had sojourned, in the land of Canaan.

Genesis 37:4
His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms.

Genesis 37:11
His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.

Genesis 37:12
Then his brothers went to pasture their father's flock in Shechem.

Genesis 37:16
He said, "I am looking for my brothers; please tell me where they are pasturing the flock."

Genesis 37:18
When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death.

Genesis 37:28
Then some Midianite traders passed by, so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt.

Genesis 37:36
Meanwhile, the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh's officer, the captain of the bodyguard.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I have digged, and drunk water,.... In places where he came, and found no water for his army, he set his soldiers to work, to dig cisterns, as the Targum, or wells, so that they had water sufficient to drink; in 2 Kings 19:24, it is "strange waters", which were never known before:

and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places; or, as the Targum,

"with the soles of the feet of the people that are with me;''

the Syriac version, "with the hoofs of my horses": with which he trampled down banks of rivers, and pools, and cisterns of water; signifying the vast numbers of his soldiers, who could drink up a river, or carry it away with them, or could turn the streams of rivers that ran by the sides, or round about, cities besieged, and so hindered the carrying on of a siege, and the taking of the place; but he had ways and means very easily to drain them, and ford them; or to cut off all communication of the water from the besieged. Some render it, "I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt" s, as Kimchi, on 2 Kings 19:24, observes, and to be understood hyperbolically; see Isaiah 19:6, so Ben Melech observes.

s כל יאורי מצור "omnes rivos Aegypti", Vitringa.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have digged - That is, I have digged wells. This was regarded among eastern nations as an important achievement. It was difficult to find water, even by digging, in sandy deserts; and in a country abounding with rocks, it was an enterprise of great difficulty to sink a well. Hence, the possession of a well became a valuable property, and was sometimes the occasion of contention between neighboring tribes Genesis 26:20. Hence, also to stop up the wells of water, by throwing in rocks or sand, became one of the most obvious ways of distressing an enemy, and was often resorted to Genesis 26:15, Genesis 26:18; 2 Kings 3:19, 2 Kings 3:25. To dig wells, or to furnish water in abundance to a people, became also an achievement which was deemed worthy to be recorded in the history of kings and princes 2 Chronicles 26:10. Many of the most stupendous and costly of the works of the Romans in the capital of their empire, and in the principal towns of their provinces, consisted in building aqueducts to bring water from a distance into a city.

An achievement like this I understand Sennacherib as boasting he had performed; that he had furnished water for the cities and towns of his mighty empire; that he had accomplished what was deemed so difficult, and what required so much expense, as digging wells for his people; and that he had secured them from being stopped up by his enemies, so that he and his people drank of the water in peace. Gesenius, however, understands this as a boast that he had extended the bounds of his empire beyond its original limits, and unto regions that were naturally destitute of water, and where it was necessary to dig wells to supply his armies. Rosenmuller understands it as saying: ‘I have passed over, and taken possession of foreign lands.’ Drusius regards it as a proverbial saying, meaning ‘I have happily and successfully accomplished all that I have undertaken, as he who digs a well accomplishes that which he particularly desires.’ Vitringa regards it as saying, ‘that to dig wells, and to drink the water of them, is to enjoy the fruit of our labors, to be successful and happy.’ But it seems to me that the interpretation above suggested, and which I have not found in any of the commentators before me, is the correct exposition.

And drunk water - In 2 Kings 19:24, it is, ‘I have drunk strange waters;’ that is, the waters of foreign lands. I have conquered them, and have dug wells in them. But the sense is not materially changed.

And with the sole of my feet - Expressions like this, denoting the desolations of a conqueror, are found in the classic writers. Perhaps the idea there is, that their armies were so numerous that they drank up all the waters in their march - a strong hyperbole to denote the number of their armies, and the extent of their desolations when even the waters failed before them. Thus Claudian (De Bello Getico, 526) introduces Alaric as boasting of his conquests in the same extravagant manner, and in language remarkably similar to this:

Cum cesserit omnis

Obsequiis natura meis. Subsidere nostris

Sub pedibus montes; arescere vidimus amnes -

Fregi Alpes, galeisque Padum victricibus hausi.

So Juvenal (Sat. 10:176), speaking of the dominion of Xerxes, says:

- credimus altos

Defecisse amnes, epotaque ilumina Medo

Prandente.

The boast of drying up streams with the sole of the foot, is intended to convey the idea that he had not only supplied water for his own empire by digging wells, but that he had cut off the supplies of water from the others against whom he had made war. The idea perhaps is, that if such an army as his was, should pass through the streams of a country that they should invade, and should only take away the water that would adhere to the sole or the hollow of the foot on their march, it would dry up all the streams. It is strong hyperbolical language, and is designed to indicate the number of the forces which were under his command.

Of the besieged places - Margin, ‘Fenced’ or ‘closed’. The word rendered ‘rivers’ (אורי 'rēy), may denote canals, or artificial streams, such as were common in Egypt. In Isaiah 19:6, it is rendered ‘brooks,’ and is applied to the artificial canals of Egypt (see the note on that place). The word rendered here ‘besieged places’ (מצור mâtsôr), may mean distress, straitness Deuteronomy 28:53; siege Ezekiel 4:2, Ezekiel 4:7; mound, bulwark, intrenchment Deuteronomy 20:20; or it may be a proper name for Egypt, being one of the forms of the name מצרים mits^erayim or Egypt. The same phrase occurs in Isaiah 19:6, where it means Egypt (see the note on that place), and such should be regarded as its meaning here. It alludes to the conquests which Sennacherib is represented as boasting that he had made in Egypt, that he had easily removed obstructions, and destroyed their means of defense. Though he had been repulsed before Pelusium by Tirhakah king of Ethiopia (see the note at Isaiah 36:1), yet it is not improbable that he had taken many towns there, and had subdued no small part of the country to himself. In his vain boasting, he would strive to forget his repulse, and would dwell on the case of conquest, and the facility with which he had removed all obstructions from his way. The whole language of the verse therefore, is that of a proud and haughty Oriental prince, desirous of proclaiming his conquests, and forgetting his mortifying defeats.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 37:25. Water - "Strange waters"] The word זרים zarim, strange, lost out of the Hebrew text in this place, is supplied from the other copy. A MS. supplies the word רבים rabbim, many, instead of it.

With the sole of my feet — With my infantry.

All the rivers of the besieged places - "All the canals of fenced places."] The principal cities of Egypt, the scene of his late exploits, were chiefly defended by deep moats, canals, or large lakes, made by labour and art, with which they were surrounded. See Harmer's Observ. ii. p. 304. Claudian introduces Alaric boasting of his conquests in the same extravagant manner: -

"Subsidere nostris

Sub pedibus montes; arescere vidimus amnes.__

Fregi Alpes, galeisque Padum victricibus hausi."

De Bello Getic. 526.

"The mountains have passed away under our feet; we have seen the rivers dried up. I have broken the Alps, and laden out the Po with our victorious helmets."