Places of the Bible
Red Sea
Water · water
What happened here
- Wilderness Wanderings · 1490 BC
Where the name appears
Events told in passages that name Red Sea, and how many of their verses do. That is not the same as saying they happened here: a place can be named as a landmark, as somewhere being travelled to, or as the subject of a prophecy.
A dot is a moment; a bar is something that lasted, drawn to its length. The fainter the mark, the fewer verses name the place.
- Exodus from Egypt · 1490 BC · 1 verse
- Crossing the Jordan into Canaan · 1450 BC · 1 verse
- War with Canaanites · 1450 BC · 1 verse
- Deliverance by Jephthah · 1151 BC · 1 verse
- Reign of Solomon · 1014 BC · 1 verse
- Prophecies of Jeremiah · 627 BC · 1 verse
- Stephen addresses the council · 30 AD · 1 verse
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
The sea so called extends along the west coast of Arabia for about 1,400 miles, and separates Asia from Africa. It is connected with the Indian Ocean, of which it is an arm, by the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. At a point (Ras Mohammed) about 200 miles from its nothern extremity it is divided into two arms, that on the east called the AElanitic Gulf, now the Bahr el-‘Akabah, about 100 miles long by 15 broad, and that on the west the Gulf of Suez, about 150 miles long by about 20 broad. This branch is now connected with the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal. Between these two arms lies the Sinaitic Peninsula.
The Hebrew name generally given to this sea is Yam Suph. This word suph means a woolly kind of sea-weed, which the sea casts up in great abundance on its shores. In these passages, Ex. 10:19; 13:18; 15:4, 22; 23:31; Num. 14:25, etc., the Hebrew name is always translated “Red Sea,” which was the name given to it by the Greeks. The origin of this name (Red Sea) is uncertain. Some think it is derived from the red colour of the mountains on the western shore; others from the red coral found in the sea, or the red appearance sometimes given to the water by certain zoophytes floating in it. In the New Testament (Acts 7:36; Heb. 11:29) this name is given to the Gulf of Suez.
This sea was also called by the Hebrews Yam-mitstraim, i.e., “the Egyptian sea” (Isa. 11:15), and simply Ha-yam, “the sea” (Ex. 14:2, 9, 16, 21, 28; Josh. 24:6, 7; Isa. 10:26, etc.).
The great historical event connected with the Red Sea is the passage of the children of Israel, and the overthrow of the Egyptians, to which there is frequent reference in Scripture (Ex. 14, 15; Num. 33:8; Deut. 11:4; Josh. 2:10; Judg. 11:16; 2 Sam. 22:16; Neh. 9:9-11; Ps. 66:6; Isa. 10:26; Acts 7:36, etc.).
From M. G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary (1893), in the public domain.
Named in 26 verses
- Exodus
- 10:19, 13:18, 15:4, 15:22, 23:31
- Numbers
- 14:25, 21:4, 33:10, 33:11
- Deuteronomy
- 1:40, 2:1, 11:4
- Joshua
- 2:10, 4:23, 24:6
- Judges
- 11:16
- 1 Kings
- 9:26
- Nehemiah
- 9:9
- Psalms
- 106:7, 106:9, 106:22, 136:13, 136:15
- Jeremiah
- 49:21
- Acts
- 7:36
- Hebrews
- 11:29
The place, its people and its events come from Theographic, a knowledge graph of the Bible by Robert Rouse, used and shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.