Exodus 15:8

Summary

The verse describes the sea's waters reacting to a wind sent by God: they pile up, stand firm, and the deep waters congeal in the middle of the sea. Three parallel poetic clauses each pair a verb of solidification/standing with a subject referring to the sea's waters.

Key words

• Ruach ("breath/wind of", H7307H) — feminine singular construct, linking to "your nostrils"; forms the causal phrase "by the wind of your nostrils."
• 'appeikha ("your nostrils", H0639H) — masculine dual construct with 2nd person suffix; the dual form reflects the paired nostrils, idiomatically tied to anger/breath in Hebrew usage.
• ne'ermu ("they were piled up", H6192) — niphal (passive/reflexive) perfect; marks a completed action happening to the waters, not performed by them.
• qafe'u ("they congealed", H7087A) — qal perfect; an active-voice completed verb describing the deep waters' state change.
• tehomot ("the deeps", H8415) — feminine plural; the subject of qafe'u, referring to the subterranean or abyssal waters.

What the text says

The verse is built as three short parallel clauses, each following a verb-subject pattern typical of Hebrew poetry: ne'ermu mayim ("piled up were waters"), nitzevu kemo-ned nozelim ("stood like a heap the flowing ones"), and qafe'u tehomot ("congealed the deeps"). The opening phrase u-ve-ruach 'appeikha ("and by the wind of your nostrils") sets the causal agent for all three actions using a construct chain: ruach ("wind/breath of") is bound to 'appeikha ("your nostrils"), an idiom pairing breath with the nostrils as its source.

The verbs shift grammatical voice: ne'ermu is niphal, presenting the waters as acted upon (piled up passively), while qafe'u is qal, presenting the deeps as undergoing the change more directly. nitzevu ("they stood up", H5324) is also niphal, paired with the simile kemo ned ("like a heap", H5067) modified by nozelim ("streams/flowing", H5140), a qal participle describing the waters in motion before they solidify. The construct phrase lev-yam ("heart of the sea", H3820A + H3220G) closes the verse, placing the congealed deeps spatially at the sea's center.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'appeikha ("your nostrils") as τοῦ θυμοῦ σου ("your wrath"), shifting the physical nostril-image to an emotional term. Where the Hebrew ned ("heap") is a simple noun, the LXX gives τεῖχος ("wall"), introducing a structural image absent from the Hebrew term itself; the Vulgate's congregatae sunt is used to render both ne'ermu and, in a parallel clause, congregata sunt abyssi for qafe'u, collapsing the distinct niphal/qal verbs into the same Latin verb form. The SBLIBRE Spanish translation renders the final clause as "quedó al descubierto" ("was left exposed"), differing from the Hebrew's qafe'u ("congealed/curdled") and from the BSB's "congealed."