Yesterday we talked about the creation of the ‘seas’ and the Genesis line listing ‘opposite couples.’ This means the ‘earth’ is the other part of the ‘seas and earth’ couple, as mentioned in the Book of Genesis:
“And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:9-11)
Right after the waters were ‘gathered together into one place,’ the Bible tells us ‘the dry land appeared.’ In the original Hebrew the word for ‘dry land’ is ‘Yabasha’ {יבשה} and it comes from the Hebrew root ‘Y-V-Sh’ {י-ב-ש} which simply means ‘dry.’
While the English translation needed to use TWO words, with one being a noun (‘land’) and the other one an adjective (‘dry’), the original Hebrew simply used the common Hebrew word for ‘land.’ In other words, in Hebrew ANY ‘land’ is by default a ‘dry land’ since the Hebrew word for ‘land’ has the word for ‘dry’ – ‘Yavesh’ {יבש} – built into it and by that automatically becomes the opposite of the ‘seas.’
In fact, the very rare old Hebrew word ‘Yabeshet’ {יבשת} – which was translated to English as ‘dry land’ and can be found in the following verse from Psalms: “The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the DRY LAND.” (Psalm 95:5) – developed in Modern Hebrew to the word for ‘continent’ , based on the Hebrew logic of Genesis which identifies the ‘seas’ (the oceans in this case) as the opposite of the ‘continents’.
Interestingly, following this Hebrew perception, if we have a closer look at the verses above we will notice that the special description of the creation of the seas in which the waters ‘gathered together into one place’ is the exact OPPOSITE of what happened at the Crossing of the Red Sea:
” Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were DIVIDED.” (Exodus 14:21)
And after the waters were divided, the Bible tells us that:
“And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground” (Exodus 14:22)
‘Dry ground’ is ‘Yabasha’ in theoriginal Hebrew – yes, the same word which is mentioned in Genesis ‘and let the DRY LAND appear.’