Drown

Drowning in Scripture appears both as an act of divine judgment celebrated in song and as a warning image in ethical teaching. Exodus 15:4–5 celebrates the drowning of Pharaoh's chariots and his army in the Red Sea—"they sank into the depths like a stone"—as the climax of Israel's deliverance, celebrated in the Song of Moses and Miriam. Amos 8:8 and 9:5 use the imagery of the land rising and sinking like the Nile to describe the judgment coming upon Israel. Hebrews 11:29 recalls that when Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, the Egyptians who attempted the crossing "were drowned."

In the New Testament, Jesus's warning in Matthew 18:6 about causing a child to stumble—"it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea"—uses drowning as the image for a fate preferable to the judgment awaiting those who harm the innocent. The image also appears in 1 Timothy 6:9, where desire for wealth "plunges people into ruin and destruction."