Yam Suph
1:
Yam Suph (yahm s∙f), term referring to body of water through which the Israelites escaped at the Exodus, either a marshy area or a body of water south(east) of the Promised Land, perhaps the Gulf of Aqabah. The usual Septuagint equivalent is ‘Red Sea,’ but 1 Kings 9:26 has ‘ultimate sea’ (taking Hebrew swp, suph, as soph, ‘end’; yam means ‘sea’). The modern translation ‘reed sea’ is possible (since suph means ‘reeds’), but disputed. Apart from the expression ym swp, Hebrew suph occurs as a place name (Deut. 1:1) and as a term for ‘reeds’ or ‘weeds’ (Exod. 2:3, 5; Isa. 19:6; Jon. 2:6); it may even imply ‘final danger’ (soph) in Jon. 2:6.
The original meaning of the Hebrew ym swp is disputed. If it named or described a marshy area across which the Israelites escaped from Egypt, then ‘reed sea’ could have been meant. If it identified a distant sea in the south (the present Red Sea and its extensions on either side of the Sinai peninsula) that came to be regarded as the location of the Exodus, ‘ultimate sea’ may have been intended. The expression may echo Moses’escape from the reeds (swp) of the Nile canal in Exod. 2:1-6. First Moses and then the people are rescued from mortal danger, swp, by the Lord (cf. the swp, ‘weeds,’ wrapped around Jonah’s head after he sank in the sea, Jon. 2:6). K.G.O.
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (1152). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
