An Oracle Concerning Egypt
Isa 19:1 A prophecy against Egypt: See, the LORD rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.
Isa 19:2 “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian— brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
Isa 19:3 The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.
Isa 19:4 I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
Isa 19:5 The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry.
Isa 19:6 The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither,
Isa 19:7 also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more.
Isa 19:8 The fishermen will groan and lament, all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water will pine away.
Isa 19:9 Those who work with combed flax will despair, the weavers of fine linen will lose hope.
Isa 19:10 The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.
Isa 19:11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise men, a disciple of the ancient kings”?
Isa 19:12 Where are your wise men now? Let them show you and make known what the LORD Almighty has planned against Egypt.
Isa 19:13 The officials of Zoan have become fools, the leaders of Memphis are deceived; the cornerstones of her peoples have led Egypt astray.
Isa 19:14 The LORD has poured into them a spirit of dizziness; they make Egypt stagger in all that she does, as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.
Isa 19:15 There is nothing Egypt can do— head or tail, palm branch or reed.
Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed
Isa 19:16 In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LORD Almighty raises against them.
Isa 19:17 And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the LORD Almighty is planning against them.
Isa 19:18 In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.
Isa 19:19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border.
Isa 19:20 It will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them.
Isa 19:21 So the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the LORD. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the LORD and keep them.
Isa 19:22 The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.
Isa 19:23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.
Isa 19:24 In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.
Isa 19:25 The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”
1 The confusion of Egypt. 11 The foolishness of their princes. 18 The calling of Egypt to the church. 23 The covenant of Egypt, Assyria, and Israel.
An Oracle Concerning Egypt
Isa 19:1 A prophecy against Egypt: See, the LORD rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.
This chapter may be considered a continuation of ch. 18, for at this time Ethiopia (Nubia) and Egypt were one, Egypt being ruled by a series of Ethiopian kings (see on ch. 18:1). However, the picture here is in striking contrast with that presented in ch. 18. Here, God is represented as riding “upon a swift cloud,” bringing judgment upon that unhappy land. Figuratively speaking, even the gods of Egypt would tremble before the God of heaven.
Isa 19:2 “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian— brother will fight against brother, neighbour against neighbour, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
This is an accurate description of the sort of debacle that so frequently meant defeat to the Egyptians. Had the Egyptians held together, no nation of antiquity could have defeated them. On the south they were protected by the cataracts of the Nile, on the west and east by the sands of the desert, and on the north by the sea.
Their natural defences were ideal. But the Egyptians proved to be their own worst enemies. Internal unrest and dissension led to weakness and ruin. When Egyptians turned against Egyptians, as they frequently did, with local rulers rising in various parts of the land and endeavouring to secure the supremacy over their fellows, the result was at least anarchy and chaos, and sometimes conquest by a foreign foe.
Later, the Egyptian rulers hired foreign mercenaries to protect them from other Egyptians, with the result that the Greeks began to exercise considerable influence in Egyptian affairs. Finally, in 525, Cambyses of Persia marched into Egypt and was crowned the first Pharaoh of the Twenty-seventh Dynasty. The days of Egyptian greatness and independence had come to an end.
Isa 19:3 The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.
By confounding the Egyptians in their plans the Lord brought them low. They sought to their idols for direction and wisdom, but the result was only increased confusion and folly, which hastened the nation on to its doom.
Isa 19:4 I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
These words do not necessarily refer to any single ruler, for there were many rulers who could qualify. They may refer to Assyria as a nation rather than to a single king; and later, to Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, Roman, Arabian, or British control over the unhappy land of Egypt. In their pride and splendour the Egyptians had turned completely against the counsel of the Lord, who now permitted them to fall under the control of tyrants.
Isa 19:5 The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry.
Egypt was dependent upon the Nile for its very existence. Whenever the Nile was too low to flow into the irrigation canals, economic disaster followed (see on Gen. 41:34). A very low Nile would leave the arteries of the whole irrigation system completely dry.
Isa 19:6 The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither,
“The rivers [probably the Nile Delta complex and the irrigation canals] shall stink.”
Isa 19:7 also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more.
When the Nile was low, the growth along the margins withered (v. 6) and the crops sown beside the river or its irrigation canals dried up.
Isa 19:8 The fishermen will groan and lament, all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water will pine away.
Fishing was one of the important occupations of Egypt. With low water the fish supply would be restricted and the Egyptians would be deprived of one of the important items upon which they depended for food.
Isa 19:9 Those who work with combed flax will despair, the weavers of fine linen will lose hope.
The production of linen was also an important occupation in Egypt. The picture here presented is of the failure of the linen industry, which is perhaps inclusive here, figuratively, of all industry.
Isa 19:10 The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.
All classes would suffer from a severe drought. The scene is one of grievous judgment, which will fall upon all.
Isa 19:11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise counsellors of Pharaoh give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise men, a disciple of the ancient kings”?
Zoan was called Tanis by the Greeks. The city was founded seven years after Hebron (Num. 13:22). It was situated in the Delta, on one of the eastern branches of the Nile. This city became the capital of Ramses II during the 13th century b.c. A century after the time of Isaiah, the prophet Ezekiel pronounced a severe judgment upon the city (Eze. 30:14).
Isa 19:12 Where are your wise men now? Let them show you and make known what the LORD Almighty has planned against Egypt.
While the idolatrous councillors of Pharaoh were planning and predicting great things for Egypt, Isaiah revealed the Lord’s intention to lay the country low. Had the so-called wise men of Egypt been wise, they would have endeavoured to ascertain the will of the Lord and to counsel the nation to follow His ways (see ch. 47:13–15).
Isa 19:13 The officials of Zoan have become fools, the leaders of Memphis are deceived; the cornerstones of her peoples have led Egypt astray.
See Jer. 46:19 and Eze. 30:13, where the Lord decrees judgment upon this Egyptian capital and its idols. This was one of the chief royal cities in Lower Egypt, and the first main point of attack when Assyrian armies invaded the country.
Isa 19:14 The LORD has poured into them a spirit of dizziness; they make Egypt stagger in all that she does, as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.
All true wisdom proceeds from God. The leaders of Egypt became foolish, and found themselves in a state of utter confusion. Their perversity and confusion came not from God but from their refusal to walk in His ways. In their uncertainty and vacillation they became as staggering drunkards, loathsome and pitiful to behold.
Isa 19:15 There is nothing Egypt can do— head or tail, palm branch or reed.
That is, all classes of people, proud leaders and the lowly poor alike. In their confusion and distress they could accomplish nothing.
Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed
Isa 19:16 In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LORD Almighty raises against them.
The picture is one of terror and dismay, of weakness and panic. The manhood of Egypt would fail, and the people would become as timorous as women.
Isa 19:17 And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the LORD Almighty is planning against them.
Judah was one of the weakest nations in the ancient East, and Egypt one of the strongest. But when the Lord would bring His judgments upon Egypt its self-confidence would be lost. Egypt rejected the counsel of the Lord, but eventually its people would stand in awe and terror before those who honoured and served Him. Events would come to such a pass that the wicked would recognize the hand of God stretched out against them for evil.
Isa 19:18 In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.
18. In that day. That is, when Egypt has learned the folly and futility of opposition to the will of God (v. 17). “In that day” appears to be a technical expression of the prophets in regard to the time when God reveals Himself to the nations and sets up the Messianic kingdom. The remainder of Isa. 19 (vs. 18–25) constitutes a conditional prophecy of the time when, according to God’s original plan for the evangelization of the world, the Egyptians should come to a knowledge of the true God and should serve Him as the Hebrew people did (see v. 25).
From among the heathen Egyptians, who had long rejected the message of God’s grace, many would turn to the Lord and learn the “language” and ways of God’s people. In Zeph. 3:8–10 a similar picture is presented (see also Zech. 14:16–19).
The name of the Egyptian city of Heliopolis means “City of the Sun.” Heliopolis is the Greek name for the city of On, mentioned in Gen. 41:45, 50. It was situated near the eastern bank of the Nile, 19 mi. north of Memphis (Noph; see Isa. 19:13), and almost due west of the northern end of the Gulf of Suez. Jeremiah (Jer. 43:13) refers to the city as Beth-shemesh, Hebrew for “House of the Sun.”
This city was the centre of sun worship. If the reading ‘ir hacheres is correct, Isaiah is commenting on the fact that of the “five cities” that “swear to the Lord of hosts” one would be the City of the Sun, the erstwhile centre of Egyptian sun worship.
Isa 19:19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border.
19. An altar to the Lord. Two Hebrew temples were later erected in Egypt, one at Elephantine, built before 525 b.c. and destroyed in 410, and the other at Leontopolis in the Delta, near Memphis, built in response to the petition of Onias to Ptolemy Philometor and Cleopatra about 150 b.c.
However, it is highly improbable that either of these temples is here referred to. The prediction of vs. 18–25 is strictly conditional (see on v. 18). The time never came when the Egyptians swore allegiance to the true God (v. 18) and became His people (v. 25).
This prediction was never fulfilled, partly because Israel proved unfaithful to the sacred trust committed to her (see pp. 30–34). Had Israel been faithful, men from all nations, including Egypt, would have turned to the Lord (see Zech. 14:16–19).
Centres for the worship of the true God would have replaced those in which heathen gods had been worshiped. The prophet foresaw a time when the world would turn to the Lord and serve Him. As a result of Israel’s failure, however, this conditional prophecy could not be fulfilled. Nevertheless, in the earth made new all the nations of the saved will worship the Lord (Isa. 11:9; Isa 45:22, 23; Dan. 7:27).
Isa 19:20 It will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a saviour and defender, and he will rescue them.
20. Send them a saviour. The conditional prophecy continues (see on v. 18).
Isa 19:21 So the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the LORD. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the LORD and keep them.
The blessings of the gospel would not be the exclusive possession of Israel.
Isa 19:22 The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.
The Lord is a God of mercy. He smites in order that He may heal. God’s object in sending judgments is not destruction, but restoration, for Egypt as well as for Judah.
Isa 19:23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.
Isaiah foresaw the day when Egypt and Assyria would worship the Lord (see on v. 18). The nations would live together in peace and brotherhood, happy to serve the Lord. This prophecy will find its fulfillment in the earth made new, when all will know Him, “from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jer. 31:34; cf. Isa. 11:16; 35:8).
Isa 19:25 The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”
The Israelites had come to look upon themselves as being the Lord’s people exclusively. They forgot that He was the God of all the earth and that He desired all nations to be saved. Isaiah here points out to the people of Israel their opportunities and responsibilities. The time was to come when heathen Assyria, as well as Egypt, would know God. Hosea had a similar vision (Hosea 1:10).