the coastlands. In Hebrew, ‘iyey hayam mans “islands
of the sea,” but in biblical usage it refers to far-flung places that may be either
along the shore of the Mediterranean or actual islands. Here the idiom stands
instead of phrases used earlier for the vast extent of the empire. (Robert
Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
2019], 3:744)
Further Reading:
