by Larry Brigden

Should יַם־סֽוּף be translated as Red Sea or Reed Sea?

Exodus 15.4 reads as:

AV/KJV: Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea. 

CEB: Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he hurled into the sea; his elite captains were sunk in the Reed Sea. 

NIV: [footnote] Or the Sea of Reeds; also in verse 22

The translation, ‘Red Sea’, for the Hebrew יַם־סֽוּף (= yam suph) has been queried on occasion. Unbelieving scholarship would claim that since the literal translation of יַם־סֽוּף (= yam suph) is ‘Sea of Reeds’ and since reeds do not normally grow in saltwater environments but in fresh water, that therefore the Exodus crossing was in some shallow freshwater lake with reeds and not in a deep sea requiring a supernatural power to divide the waters. Yet it is quite clear from a survey of the use of יַם־סֽוּף (= yam suph) in the Old Testament that such an understanding of the term as referring to a marshy, shallow, fresh water lake is impossible and that, on the contrary, יַם־סֽוּף (= yam suph) does definitely refer to the Red Sea, even though it is true that the Hebrew literally does mean ‘Sea of Reeds’ (see, for example, Isaiah 19.6 where ס֖וּף certainly does mean ‘flag’ or ‘reed’).

It would appear that ‘the Red Sea’ is simply an alternate name for the same body of water which the Hebrews called יַם־סֽוּף (= yam suph). John Owen thinks that the name ‘Red Sea’ came about due to that sea lying adjacent to the country of Edom which in Hebrew means ‘red’ (see Owen’s commentary on Hebrews 11.29). But the origin of the name, ‘Red Sea’, is not agreed by all and remains a matter of some speculation.

It is clear that the name, ‘Red Sea’, was accepted by the inspired New Testament writers, Luke (Acts 7.36) and Paul (Hebrews 11.29). The LXX also generally translates the Hebrew יַם־סֽוּף (= yam suph) as ὴ ἐρυθρὰ θάλασση = ‘the Red Sea’, though with two interesting exceptions to this pattern, Judges 11.16: θαλάσση Σὶφ = ‘Sea of Reed’ and 3 Kings 9.26 (= 1 Kings 9.26 AV): η ἐσχάτη θαλάσση = ‘the End Sea’. In both the latter cases the LXX translators have translated the Hebrew literally since ס֖וּף could mean ‘reed’ or ‘end’, ‘extremity’. And it seems possible that this variation in the Septuagint translation, most often ‘Red Sea’ but also ‘Sea of Reeds’ or ‘End Sea’, could indicate that that body of water was known by more than one name. Ancient Greek writers like Herodotus (484–425 BC) and Strabo (64 BC–AD 21) do indeed refer to it as ‘the Red Sea’, as does Josephus, the Jewish historian, writing in the first century AD.

The ‘Red Sea’ appears to be simply an accepted alternate name for the same body of water which previously was referred to by the Hebrews as ‘the Sea of Reeds’, יַם־סֽוּף (= yam suph), with the question of how the name, ‘Red Sea’, originated and gained acceptance being not yet conclusively answered.