Isaiah 42:15
New International Version
I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.

New Living Translation
I will level the mountains and hills and blight all their greenery. I will turn the rivers into dry land and will dry up all the pools.

English Standard Version
I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools.

Berean Standard Bible
I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into dry land and drain the marshes.

King James Bible
I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

New King James Version
I will lay waste the mountains and hills, And dry up all their vegetation; I will make the rivers coastlands, And I will dry up the pools.

New American Standard Bible
“I will lay waste the mountains and hills And wither all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into coastlands And dry up the ponds.

NASB 1995
“I will lay waste the mountains and hills And wither all their vegetation; I will make the rivers into coastlands And dry up the ponds.

NASB 1977
“I will lay waste the mountains and hills, And wither all their vegetation; I will make the rivers into coastlands, And dry up the ponds.

Legacy Standard Bible
I will lay waste the mountains and hills And dry up all their vegetation; I will make the rivers into coastlands And dry up the pools of waters.

Amplified Bible
“I will lay waste the mountains and hills And wither all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into coastlands And dry up the ponds.

Christian Standard Bible
I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn rivers into islands and dry up marshes.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn rivers into islands and dry up marshes.

American Standard Version
I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
I shall lay the mountains waste and the hills, and all their strength I shall dry up. I shall make rivers islands and the pools I shall dry up

Brenton Septuagint Translation
I will make desolate mountains and hills, and will dry up all their grass; and I will make the rivers islands, and dry up the pools.

Contemporary English Version
I will destroy the mountains and what grows on them; I will dry up rivers and ponds.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and will make all their grass to wither: and I will turn rivers into islands, and will dry up the standing pools.

English Revised Version
I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
I will lay waste to mountains and hills. I will dry up all their vegetation. I will turn rivers into islands. I will dry up ponds.

Good News Translation
I will destroy the hills and mountains and dry up the grass and trees. I will turn the river valleys into deserts and dry up the pools of water.

International Standard Version
I'll devastate the mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation; I'll turn rivers into islands, and dry up the ponds.

JPS Tanakh 1917
I will make waste mountains and hills, And dry up all their herbs; And I will make the rivers islands, And will dry up the pools.

Literal Standard Version
I make desolate mountains and hills, | And I dry up all their herbs, | And I have made rivers become islands, | And I dry up ponds.

Majority Standard Bible
I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into dry land and drain the marshes.

New American Bible
I will lay waste mountains and hills, all their undergrowth I will dry up; I will turn the rivers into marshes, and the marshes I will dry up.

NET Bible
I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; I will dry up all their vegetation. I will turn streams into islands, and dry up pools of water.

New Revised Standard Version
I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools.

New Heart English Bible
I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.

Webster's Bible Translation
I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers to be islands, and I will dry up the pools.

World English Bible
I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.

Young's Literal Translation
I make waste mountains and hills, And all their herbs I dry up, And I have made rivers become isles, And ponds I dry up.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A New Song of Praise
14“I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant. 15I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into dry land and drain the marshes. 16I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.…

Cross References
Psalm 107:33
He turns rivers into deserts, springs of water into thirsty ground,

Isaiah 2:12
For the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted--it will be humbled--

Isaiah 41:15
Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.

Isaiah 44:27
who says to the depths of the sea, 'Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,'

Isaiah 50:2
Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold, My rebuke dries up the sea; I turn the rivers into a desert; the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

Ezekiel 38:19
In My zeal and fiery rage I proclaim that on that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

Ezekiel 38:20
The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that crawls upon the ground, and all mankind on the face of the earth will tremble at My presence. The mountains will be thrown down, the cliffs will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground.


Treasury of Scripture

I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

Isaiah 2:12-16
For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: …

Isaiah 11:15,16
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod…

Isaiah 44:27
That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:

Jump to Previous
Coastlands Destroy Dry Drying Herbage Herbs Hills Islands Isles Lay Mountains Plants Ponds Pools Rivers Turn Vegetation Waste Wither
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Coastlands Destroy Dry Drying Herbage Herbs Hills Islands Isles Lay Mountains Plants Ponds Pools Rivers Turn Vegetation Waste Wither
Isaiah 42
1. The office of Christ, graced with meekness and constancy.
5. God's promise unto him.
10. An exhortation to praise God for his Gospel
13. God will manifest himself, and check idolatry
18. He reproves the people of incredulity.














(15) I will make waste mountains . . .--The whole description is symbolic, and points to the subjugation of the heathen nations, the "rivers" and "pools" probably representing the kingdoms of the Tigris and Euphrates (Isaiah 8:7). All this seems a purely destructive work, but through it all mercy and truth are working, and a way is being opened for the return of Israel, in painting which, as elsewhere, the literal melts into the spiritual, as in a dissolving view. (See Note on Isaiah 40:4.) "These things" include the whole work of judgment and of mercy.

Verse 15. - I will make waste mountains and hills. The result of God's "stirring up his jealousy," and giving a free vent to his feelings, will be the destruction of the great and mighty ones of the earth (comp. Isaiah 2:14). These are probably, in this place, the Babylonian kings and nobles. Dry up all their herbs; i.e. turn Babylonia, temporarily, into a desert. Make the rivers islands, and dry up the pools. Invert the established order of things - turn the rivers into dry land, and empty the reservoirs. There is, perhaps, some allusion to those dealings with the river-beds, which the Greek historians ascribe to Cyrus (Herod., 1:189, 191; Xen., 'Cyrop.,' 7:5, § 10), and which are not disproved by the fact that the one native account of the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, which has come down to us, makes no mention of them.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
I will lay waste
אַחֲרִ֤יב (’a·ḥă·rîḇ)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - first person common singular
Strong's 2717: To parch, to desolate, destroy, kill

the mountains
הָרִים֙ (hā·rîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 2022: Mountain, hill, hill country

and hills
וּגְבָע֔וֹת (ū·ḡə·ḇā·‘ō·wṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 1389: A hillock

and dry up
אוֹבִ֑ישׁ (’ō·w·ḇîš)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - first person common singular
Strong's 3001: To be ashamed, confused, disappointed, to dry up, wither

all
וְכָל־ (wə·ḵāl)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

their vegetation.
עֶשְׂבָּ֖ם (‘eś·bām)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 6212: Herb, herbage

I will turn
וְשַׂמְתִּ֤י (wə·śam·tî)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 7760: Put -- to put, place, set

the rivers
נְהָרוֹת֙ (nə·hā·rō·wṯ)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 5104: A stream, prosperity

into islands
לָֽאִיִּ֔ים (lā·’î·yîm)
Preposition-l, Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 339: A habitable spot, dry land, a coast, an island

and dry up
אוֹבִֽישׁ׃ (’ō·w·ḇîš)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - first person common singular
Strong's 3001: To be ashamed, confused, disappointed, to dry up, wither

the marshes.
וַאֲגַמִּ֖ים (wa·’ă·ḡam·mîm)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 98: A marsh, a rush, a stockade of reeds


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OT Prophets: Isaiah 42:15 I will destroy mountains and hills (Isa Isi Is)
Isaiah 42:14
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