Isaiah 50:2

Hebrew Bible

1 This is what the Lord says: “Where is your mother’s divorce certificate by which I divorced her? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold because of your sins; because of your rebellious acts I divorced your mother. 2 Why does no one challenge me when I come? Why does no one respond when I call? Is my hand too weak to deliver you? Do I lack the power to rescue you? Look, with a mere shout I can dry up the sea; I can turn streams into a desert, so the fish rot away and die from lack of water. 3 I can clothe the sky in darkness; I can cover it with sackcloth.” 4 The Sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, so that I know how to help the weary. He wakes me up every morning; he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do.

1 Enoch 101:7

Pseudepigrapha

6 Are not the entire sea and all its waters, and all its movements, the work of the Most High, and has He not set limits to its doings, and confined it throughout by the sand? 7 And at His reproof it is afraid and dries up, and all its fish die and all that is in it; But ye sinners that are on the earth fear Him not. 8 Has He not made the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein? Who has given understanding and wisdom to everything that moves on the earth and in the sea.

 Notes and References

"... The language of “rebuke” assumes that capacity of nature to rebel against God (compare e.g. 2 Samuel 22:16; Job 26:11–12; Psalm 18:15; 89:9; 104:7; 106:9; Isaiah 24:17–20; Nahum 1:4; Sirach 16:18–19; 4QNonCanb (= 4Q381) 15.4; Mark 4:39; Matthew 8:26 and Luke 8:24; compare Isaiah 17:13). The lemma thus ultimately describes how it is that God has placed the sea, its creatures and everything in it under control. This description presupposes the ancient near eastern creation myth about the triumph over chaos. Even the primordial powers are harnessed into obedience according to the Creator’s will and show God respect. “Fear” refers to obedience to (and therefore) worship of God as Creator, rather than simply to being afraid. The text has strong affinities with Deutero-Isaiah at 50:2 in which the myth is used to underscore God’s power to deliver Israel ..."

Stuckenbruck, Loren T. 1 Enoch 91-108 (p. 480) De Gruyter, 2007

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