Dry land

The word for “dry land” in Genesis 1:9-10 is not adamah or eretz but the rare yabash . After Genesis 1, that word is not used again until Moses pours water that turns to blood onto the dry land of Egypt (Exodus 4:9), and the word shows up again at the great dividing of waters at the exodus (Exodus 14:16, 22, 29; 15:16). The exodus is a new creation, the emergence of Israel from the sea of Egypt. So is the crossing into Canaan, when the waters of Jordan stand still and reveal the yabash (Joshua 4:22).

Elsewhere, the word is used mainly with reference to the exodus or new exodus (Nehemiah 9:11; Psalm 66:6; Isaiah 44:3). Interestingly, though, the word is used several times in Jonah. Jonah serves the God of sea and dry land (1:9), the sailors row to get to the dry land (1:13), and the fish spews Jonah onto the dry land (2:10).

Jonah is an exodus story, but with a twist. The waters do not divide so that land can emerge; the sailors can’t get to the dry land that they seek, though they end up worshiping Yahweh, God of dry land. Jonah reaches the dry land only by being plunged into the sea. More literally than Israel coming from Egypt, he passes through the waters to the other side. That is why Jesus gives the sign of Jonah rather than the sign of exodus, because Jesus too will be restored to the land, bringing an end to exile, only by being tossed into the sea.