Basil of Caesarea : Yet there will be a time when all things will be burned up by fire, as Isaiah says when he addresses the God of the universe: [You] "who say to the deep, 'Be thou desolate, and I will dry up all your rivers.' " Casting aside, therefore, the wisdom that has been turned into foolishness, receive with us the teaching of truth, homely in speech but infallible in doctrine. — HOMILIES ON THE HEXAMERON 3:6 Ephrem the Syrian : "I will dry up your rivers," that is, he will extend his hand over the Euphrates. In a different way, we may intend that the Lord will destroy the devil and his frauds, into which he plunges people as into a sea. And the rivers, which he dries up, are the armies of his iniquity. — COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 44:27 Jerome : (Verse 27) I say to the depths: be desolate, and I will dry up your rivers. LXX: I say to the abyss, you will be desolated, and I will dry up your rivers. Therefore, whoever says that Jerusalem, and Judah, and its deserts should be inhabited, and built, and restored, he is saying that Babylon, which is the deep or abyss, should be made desolate and your rivers should be dried up, along with all the power of kings. And because he had said the deep and abyss, he appropriately added the translation of rivers, about which even the Psalmist sings: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept (Psalms 137:1). And he who restores Jerusalem, destroys Babylon. — Commentary on Isaiah