to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
maketh
הַנּוֹתֵ֥ןha.no.Ten
H5414
to give · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
way
דָּ֑רֶךְDa.rekh
H1870
a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
sea
בַּיָּ֖םbai.Yam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
path
נְתִיבָֽהne.ti.Vah
H5410
a (beaten) track · noun, common feminine singular absolute
mighty
עַזִּ֖ים'a.Zim
H5794
strong · adjective, masculine plural absolute
waters
וּבְמַ֥יִםu.ve.Ma.yim
H4325
water · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 77:19 Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.
Isaiah 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through t…
Isaiah 51:10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass…
Jeremiah 31:35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which di…
Nehemiah 9:11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwe…
Psalms 78:13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
Psalms 106:9 He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
Isaiah 51:15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 43:14-21
To so low an ebb were the faith and hope of God's people in Babylon brought that there needed line upon line to assure them that they should be released out of their captivity; and therefore, that they might have strong consolation, the assurances of it are often repeated, and here very expressly and encouragingly.
I. God here takes to himself such titles of his honour as were very encouraging to them. He is the Lord their Redeemer, not only he will redeem them, but will take it upon him as his office and make it his business to do so. If he be their God, he will be all that to them which they need, and therefore, when they are in bondage, he will be their Redeemer. He is the Holy One of Isr…
Allusion to the deliverance of Israel and overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, the standing illustration of God's unchanging character towards His people (Exo 14:21-22, Exo 14:27-28).
John Gill on Isaiah 43:16
Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea,.... Who did make a way in the Red sea, when he led Israel through it as on dry land; this, with what follows, is observed to encourage the faith of the Lord's people in the performance of what he had promised, to bring them out of Babylon; for he that had done this, and the rest that are mentioned, could easily remove all difficulties that lay in the way of their deliverance:
and a path in the mighty waters; either of the Red sea, or it may be of Jordan; through which the Israelites passed into the land of Canaan.
John Calvin on Isaiah 43:16
Thus saith Jehovah. He again repeats and confirms what was otherwise incredible; and, in order that this confirmation may have greater weight, he personates God himself.
Who maketh a way in the sea. He reminds them of former benefits, that, having experienced his power and kindness, they may believe that he will not be less gracious for the future, nor less powerful to deliver them. As if he had said, "The Lord who speaks will actually shew how vast is the greatness of his power. Your fathers experienced it, and you will not experience it the less." Now, we are ungrateful to God, if former benefits do not lead us to entertain hope for the future; and especially when he intended to give a su…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 16) Thus says the Lord, who made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters. LXX: For thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters. The Lord, who destroyed and cast down Babylon and took away its mightiest ones from power, and made all the Chaldeans who sailed prosperously on the waves of this age captives, He Himself found a way in the rushing waters of the Red Sea, so that his liberated people could cross from Egypt. Whether it was he who made a path in the Red Sea, or who found a way in the raging waters of the river Jordan, so that the departure from Egypt and the entrance into the promised land would have a miracle.
How has he led chariots and horses? It is clear that Pharaoh pursued Israel by his own decision, for God had already spoken in this way to him: "I have raised you up as to show my power in you and so that my name might be made known throughout the earth." Thus in a marvelous way God saves those who are fleeing from the desire for earthly things as they are pursued by the devil. God shows them that the wild waves of the present life are passable and that they will not be overwhelmed by trials but will arrive securely in the desert with a stilled and purified mind. They will eat the heavenly bread and drink the water from the rock. This is to share in Christ and to go through the Jordan and gain the Promised Land.
Although these things were done to the Babylonians and Chaldeans, prophetically speaking, the future things that are "not yet" shall be as if already accomplished. God has completed these by himself, comparing the present events with those that happened earlier: I showed my divinity to those in Egypt and led my people through the Red Sea. I made a way "in the mighty water" and a dry path through that same sea when I threw the chariots of Pharaoh and his forces into the sea to the bed prepared for them, sinking down to the abyss and no longer able to rise. They were like those of old who were bent like a snuffed wick in a burning flame. I worked such things among the ancients, who in turn passed on the memory of those wonders to those of old who followed. But for the present I command them no longer to be amazed at those deeds, neither those done in Babylon nor those in Egypt.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Red Sea · 14;15:1,4,11,19; — 14;15:1,4,11,19;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
There now follows a second field of the picture of redemption; and the expression "for your sake" is expounded in Isa 43:16-21 : "Thus saith Jehovah, who giveth a road through the sea, and a path through tumultuous waters; who bringeth out chariot and horse, army and hero; they lie down together, they never rise: they have flickered away, extinguished like a wick. Remember not things of olden time, nor meditate upon those of earlier times! Behold, I work out a new thing: will ye not live to see it? Yea, I make a road through the desert, and streams through solitudes. The beast of the field will praise me, wild dogs and ostriches: for I give water in the desert, streams in solitude, to give d…
The Lord assured Israel of its coming redemption from Babylon; the redemption would be modeled on Israel’s past redemption from Egypt and would be greater in some ways (43:18).
Rashi on Isaiah 43:16
Who made a way in the sea in the Sea of Reeds, and there I drew the Egyptians out to pursue you, with chariots and horses, and an army and power, and all of them lay together dead on the seashore, not to rise.