Reference: Isle, Island
American
The Hebrew word which is more commonly translated isle, means strictly dry land, habitable country, in opposition to water, or to seas and rivers, Isa 42:15. Compare Isa 50:2. Hence, as opposed to water in general, it means land adjacent to water, either washed or surrounded by it, that is, maritime country, coast, island. Thus it means coast, when used of Ashdod, Isa 20:6; of Tyre, Isa 23:2,6; of Peloponnesus, or Greece, Eze 27:7; "the isles of Elishah." It means island when used of Caphtor, for example, or Crete, Jer 47:4; 2:10; Ps 97:1; Es 10:1, where the phrase isles of the sea is in antithesis with the land or continent. The plural of this word, usually translated islands, was employed by the Hebrews to denote distant regions beyond the sea, whether coasts or islands; and especially the islands and maritime countries of the west, which had become indistinctly known to the Hebrews, through the voyages of the Phoenicians, Isa 24:15; 40:15; 42:4,10,12; Ps 72:10. In Eze 27:15, the East Indian Archipelago would seem to be intended.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands come back with offerings; let the kings of Sheba and Seba give of their stores.
The Lord is King, let the earth have joy; let all the sea-lands be glad.
And those living by the sea will say in that day, See the fate of our hope to whom we went for help and salvation from the king of Assyria: what hope have we then of salvation?
Send out a cry of grief, you men of the sea-land, traders of Zidon, who go over the sea, whose representatives are on great waters;
Give praise to the Lord in the east, to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the sea-lands.
See, the nations are to him like a drop hanging from a bucket, and like the small dust in the scales: he takes up the islands like small dust.
His light will not be put out, and he will not be crushed, till he has given the knowledge of the true God to the earth, and the sea-lands will be waiting for his teaching.
Make a new song to the Lord, and let his praise be sounded from the end of the earth; you who go down to the sea, and everything in it, the sea-lands and their people.
I will make waste mountains and hills, drying up all their plants; and I will make rivers dry, and pools dry land.
Why, then, when I came, was there no man? and no one to give answer to my voice? has my hand become feeble, so that it is unable to take up your cause? or have I no power to make you free? See, at my word the sea becomes dry, I make the rivers a waste land: their fish are dead for need of water, and make an evil smell.
For go over to the sea-lands of Kittim and see; send to Kedar and give deep thought to it; and see if there has ever been such a thing.
Because of the day which is coming with destruction on all the Philistines, cutting off from Tyre and Zidon the last of their helpers: for the Lord will send destruction on the Philistines, the rest of the sea-land of Caphtor.
The best linen with needlework from Egypt was your sail, stretched out to be a flag for you; blue and purple from the sea-lands of Elishah gave you shade.
The men of Rodan were your traders: a great number of sea-lands did business with you: they gave you horns of ivory and ebony as an offering.