יָם

“Sea” in Hebrew is Yam (יָם), pronounced “YAHM.” Yam is a primary Semitic noun found across ancient Near Eastern languages. In Ugaritic mythology, Yam was the name of the chaos sea-god defeated by Baal. Israel's use of the same word for the sea — fully under God's control — was a deliberate theological statement.

Yam (יָם) means “Sea, ocean, large body of water” in Biblical Hebrew. Yam appears approximately 395 times in the Hebrew Bible. It refers to the Mediterranean ('the Great Sea'), the Red Sea (Yam Suf), the Dead Sea (Yam HaMelach), and the Sea of Galilee (Yam Kinneret). It also symbolizes chaos and the forces opposed to God's order.

Yam is pronounced “YAHM.” The word comes from the Hebrew root י-מ.

Yam Suf literally means 'Sea of Reeds,' not 'Red Sea.' The name 'Red Sea' comes from the Greek Septuagint translation. Scholars debate whether this was the modern Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez, the Gulf of Aqaba, or a marshy lake in between. Regardless of the exact location, the biblical point is that God sovereignly parted a body of water to deliver His people.

In Hebrew symbolism, the sea (yam) represents chaos, danger, and the forces that oppose God's order. When Revelation 21:1 says 'the sea was no more,' it is not a geographical statement but a theological one: in the new creation, chaos is permanently defeated. There will be no more threat, no more danger, no more separation from God.

When Jesus walked on the Yam (Sea of Galilee) in Matthew 14:25, His Jewish disciples would have recalled that only God 'treads on the waves of the sea' (Job 9:8). Walking on the yam was a divine prerogative — a demonstration that Jesus shares the authority of the God who subdues chaos. It was as much a revelation of identity as it was a miracle.