The Oracle Against Egypt, the Collapse of False Wisdom, and the Healing of the Nations

Isa 19:5-10 The prophet then proceeds to foretell another misfortune which was coming upon Egypt: the Nile dries up, and with this the fertility of the land disappears. “And the waters will dry up from the sea, and the river is parched and dried. And the arms of the river spread a stench; the channels of Matzor become shallow and parched: reed and rush shrivel up.

The meadows by the Nile, on the border of the Nile, and every corn-field of the Nile, dries up, is scattered, and disappears. And the fishermen groan, and all who throw draw-nets into the Nile lament, and they that spread out the net upon the face of the waters languish away. And the workers of fine combed flax are confounded, and the weavers of cotton fabrics.

And the pillars of the land are ground to powder; all that work for wages are troubled in mind. ” In Isa 19:5 the Nile is called yâm (a sea), just as Homer calls it Oceanus , which, as Diodorus observes, was the name given by the natives to the river (Egypt. oham ). The White Nile is called bahr el - abyad (the White Sea), the Blue Nile bahr el - azrak , and the combined waters bahr eṅNil , or, in the language of the Besharîn, as here in Isaiah, yām .

And in the account of the creation, in Gen 1, <, yammim is the collective name for great seas and rivers. But the Nile itself is more like an inland sea than a river, from the point at which the great bodies of water brought down by the Blue Nile and the White Nile, which rises a few weeks later, flow together; partly on account of its great breadth, and partly also because of its remaining stagnant throughout the dry season.

It is not till the tropical rains commence that the swelling river begins to flow more rapidly, and the yâm becomes a nâhâr . But when, as is here threatened, the Nile sea and Nile river in Upper Egypt sink together and dry up ( nisshethu , niphal either of shâthath = nâshattu , to set, to grow shallow; or more probably from nâshath , to dry up, since Isa 41:17 and Jer 51:30 warrant the assumption that there was such a verb), the mouths (or arms ) of the Nile ( nehâr ), which flow through the Delta, and the many canals ( ye'orim ), by which the benefits of the overflow are conveyed to the Nile valley, are turned into stinking puddles (האזניחוּ, a hiphil , half substantive half verbal, unparalleled elsewhere, signifying to spread a stench; possibly it may have been used in the place of הזניח, from אזנח or אזנח, stinking, to which a different application was given in ordinary use).

In all probability it is not without intention that Isaiah uses the expression Mâtzor , inasmuch as he distinguishes Mâzort from Pathros (Isa 11:11), i. e. , Lower from Upper Egypt (Egyp. sa - het , the low land, and sa - res , the higher land), the two together being Mitzrayim . And ye'orim (by the side of nehâroth ) we are warranted in regarding as the name given of the Nile canals.

The canal system in Egypt and the system of irrigation are older than the invasion of the Hyksos (vid. , Lepsius, in Herzog’s Cyclopaedia ). On the other hand, ye'ōr in Isa 19:7 (where it is written three times plene , as it is also in Isa 19:8) is the Egyptian name of the Nile generally ( yaro ). It is repeated emphatically three times, like Mitzrayim in Isa 19:1.

Parallel to mizra‛ , but yet different from it, is ערות, from ערה, to be naked or bare, which signifies, like many derivatives of the synonymous word in Arabic, either open spaces, or as here, grassy tracts by the water-side, i. e. , meadows. Even the meadows, which lie close to the water-side ( pi = ora , as in Psa 133:2, not ostium ), and all the fields, become so parched, that they blow away like ashes.

Then the three leading sources from which Egypt derived its maintenance all fail: - viz. the fishing; the linen manufacture, which supplied dresses for the priests and bandages for mummies; and the cotton manufacture, by which all who were not priests were supplied with clothes. The Egyptian fishery was very important. In the Berlin Museum there is an Egyptian micmoreth with lead attached.

The mode of working the flax by means of serikâh , pectinatio (compare סרוק, wool-combs, Kelim , 12, 2), is shown on the monuments. In the Berlin Museum there are also Egyptian combs of this description with which the flax was carded. The productions of the Egyptian looms were celebrated in antiquity: chōrây , lit. , white cloth ( singularet . with the old termination ay ), is the general name for cotton fabrics, or the different kinds of byssus that were woven there (compare the βυσσίνων ὀθονίων of the Rosetta inscription).

All the castes, from the highest to the lowest, are not thrown into agonies of despair. The shâthōth (an epithet that was probably suggested by the thought of shethi , a warp, Syr. 'ashti , to weave, through the natural association of ideas), i. e. , the “ pillars ” of the land (with a suffix relating to Mitzrayim , see at Isa 3:8, and construed as a masculine as at Psa 11:3), were the highest castes, who were the direct supporters of the state edifice; and שׂכר עשׂי cannot mean the citizens engaged in trade, i.

e. , the middle classes, but such of the people as hired themselves to the employers of labour, and therefore lived upon wages and not upon their own property (שׂכר is used here as in Pro 11:18, and not as equivalent to סכר, the dammers-up of the water for the purpose of catching the fish, like סכרין, Kelim , 23, 5).

Isa 19:5-10 The prophet then proceeds to foretell another misfortune which was coming upon Egypt: the Nile dries up, and with this the fertility of the land disappears. “And the waters will dry up from the sea, and the river is parched and dried. And the arms of the river spread a stench; the channels of Matzor become shallow and parched: reed and rush shrivel up.

The meadows by the Nile, on the border of the Nile, and every corn-field of the Nile, dries up, is scattered, and disappears. And the fishermen groan, and all who throw draw-nets into the Nile lament, and they that spread out the net upon the face of the waters languish away. And the workers of fine combed flax are confounded, and the weavers of cotton fabrics.

And the pillars of the land are ground to powder; all that work for wages are troubled in mind. ” In Isa 19:5 the Nile is called yâm (a sea), just as Homer calls it Oceanus , which, as Diodorus observes, was the name given by the natives to the river (Egypt. oham ). The White Nile is called bahr el - abyad (the White Sea), the Blue Nile bahr el - azrak , and the combined waters bahr eṅNil , or, in the language of the Besharîn, as here in Isaiah, yām .

And in the account of the creation, in Gen 1, <, yammim is the collective name for great seas and rivers. But the Nile itself is more like an inland sea than a river, from the point at which the great bodies of water brought down by the Blue Nile and the White Nile, which rises a few weeks later, flow together; partly on account of its great breadth, and partly also because of its remaining stagnant throughout the dry season.

It is not till the tropical rains commence that the swelling river begins to flow more rapidly, and the yâm becomes a nâhâr . But when, as is here threatened, the Nile sea and Nile river in Upper Egypt sink together and dry up ( nisshethu , niphal either of shâthath = nâshattu , to set, to grow shallow; or more probably from nâshath , to dry up, since Isa 41:17 and Jer 51:30 warrant the assumption that there was such a verb), the mouths (or arms ) of the Nile ( nehâr ), which flow through the Delta, and the many canals ( ye'orim ), by which the benefits of the overflow are conveyed to the Nile valley, are turned into stinking puddles (האזניחוּ, a hiphil , half substantive half verbal, unparalleled elsewhere, signifying to spread a stench; possibly it may have been used in the place of הזניח, from אזנח or אזנח, stinking, to which a different application was given in ordinary use).

In all probability it is not without intention that Isaiah uses the expression Mâtzor , inasmuch as he distinguishes Mâzort from Pathros (Isa 11:11), i. e. , Lower from Upper Egypt (Egyp. sa - het , the low land, and sa - res , the higher land), the two together being Mitzrayim . And ye'orim (by the side of nehâroth ) we are warranted in regarding as the name given of the Nile canals.

The canal system in Egypt and the system of irrigation are older than the invasion of the Hyksos (vid. , Lepsius, in Herzog’s Cyclopaedia ). On the other hand, ye'ōr in Isa 19:7 (where it is written three times plene , as it is also in Isa 19:8) is the Egyptian name of the Nile generally ( yaro ). It is repeated emphatically three times, like Mitzrayim in Isa 19:1.

Parallel to mizra‛ , but yet different from it, is ערות, from ערה, to be naked or bare, which signifies, like many derivatives of the synonymous word in Arabic, either open spaces, or as here, grassy tracts by the water-side, i. e. , meadows. Even the meadows, which lie close to the water-side ( pi = ora , as in Psa 133:2, not ostium ), and all the fields, become so parched, that they blow away like ashes.

Then the three leading sources from which Egypt derived its maintenance all fail: - viz. the fishing; the linen manufacture, which supplied dresses for the priests and bandages for mummies; and the cotton manufacture, by which all who were not priests were supplied with clothes. The Egyptian fishery was very important. In the Berlin Museum there is an Egyptian micmoreth with lead attached.

The mode of working the flax by means of serikâh , pectinatio (compare סרוק, wool-combs, Kelim , 12, 2), is shown on the monuments. In the Berlin Museum there are also Egyptian combs of this description with which the flax was carded. The productions of the Egyptian looms were celebrated in antiquity: chōrây , lit. , white cloth ( singularet . with the old termination ay ), is the general name for cotton fabrics, or the different kinds of byssus that were woven there (compare the βυσσίνων ὀθονίων of the Rosetta inscription).

All the castes, from the highest to the lowest, are not thrown into agonies of despair. The shâthōth (an epithet that was probably suggested by the thought of shethi , a warp, Syr. 'ashti , to weave, through the natural association of ideas), i. e. , the “ pillars ” of the land (with a suffix relating to Mitzrayim , see at Isa 3:8, and construed as a masculine as at Psa 11:3), were the highest castes, who were the direct supporters of the state edifice; and שׂכר עשׂי cannot mean the citizens engaged in trade, i.

e. , the middle classes, but such of the people as hired themselves to the employers of labour, and therefore lived upon wages and not upon their own property (שׂכר is used here as in Pro 11:18, and not as equivalent to סכר, the dammers-up of the water for the purpose of catching the fish, like סכרין, Kelim , 23, 5).

Isa 19:5-10 The prophet then proceeds to foretell another misfortune which was coming upon Egypt: the Nile dries up, and with this the fertility of the land disappears. “And the waters will dry up from the sea, and the river is parched and dried. And the arms of the river spread a stench; the channels of Matzor become shallow and parched: reed and rush shrivel up.

The meadows by the Nile, on the border of the Nile, and every corn-field of the Nile, dries up, is scattered, and disappears. And the fishermen groan, and all who throw draw-nets into the Nile lament, and they that spread out the net upon the face of the waters languish away. And the workers of fine combed flax are confounded, and the weavers of cotton fabrics.

And the pillars of the land are ground to powder; all that work for wages are troubled in mind. ” In Isa 19:5 the Nile is called yâm (a sea), just as Homer calls it Oceanus , which, as Diodorus observes, was the name given by the natives to the river (Egypt. oham ). The White Nile is called bahr el - abyad (the White Sea), the Blue Nile bahr el - azrak , and the combined waters bahr eṅNil , or, in the language of the Besharîn, as here in Isaiah, yām .

And in the account of the creation, in Gen 1, <, yammim is the collective name for great seas and rivers. But the Nile itself is more like an inland sea than a river, from the point at which the great bodies of water brought down by the Blue Nile and the White Nile, which rises a few weeks later, flow together; partly on account of its great breadth, and partly also because of its remaining stagnant throughout the dry season.

It is not till the tropical rains commence that the swelling river begins to flow more rapidly, and the yâm becomes a nâhâr . But when, as is here threatened, the Nile sea and Nile river in Upper Egypt sink together and dry up ( nisshethu , niphal either of shâthath = nâshattu , to set, to grow shallow; or more probably from nâshath , to dry up, since Isa 41:17 and Jer 51:30 warrant the assumption that there was such a verb), the mouths (or arms ) of the Nile ( nehâr ), which flow through the Delta, and the many canals ( ye'orim ), by which the benefits of the overflow are conveyed to the Nile valley, are turned into stinking puddles (האזניחוּ, a hiphil , half substantive half verbal, unparalleled elsewhere, signifying to spread a stench; possibly it may have been used in the place of הזניח, from אזנח or אזנח, stinking, to which a different application was given in ordinary use).

In all probability it is not without intention that Isaiah uses the expression Mâtzor , inasmuch as he distinguishes Mâzort from Pathros (Isa 11:11), i. e. , Lower from Upper Egypt (Egyp. sa - het , the low land, and sa - res , the higher land), the two together being Mitzrayim . And ye'orim (by the side of nehâroth ) we are warranted in regarding as the name given of the Nile canals.

The canal system in Egypt and the system of irrigation are older than the invasion of the Hyksos (vid. , Lepsius, in Herzog’s Cyclopaedia ). On the other hand, ye'ōr in Isa 19:7 (where it is written three times plene , as it is also in Isa 19:8) is the Egyptian name of the Nile generally ( yaro ). It is repeated emphatically three times, like Mitzrayim in Isa 19:1.

Parallel to mizra‛ , but yet different from it, is ערות, from ערה, to be naked or bare, which signifies, like many derivatives of the synonymous word in Arabic, either open spaces, or as here, grassy tracts by the water-side, i. e. , meadows. Even the meadows, which lie close to the water-side ( pi = ora , as in Psa 133:2, not ostium ), and all the fields, become so parched, that they blow away like ashes.

Then the three leading sources from which Egypt derived its maintenance all fail: - viz. the fishing; the linen manufacture, which supplied dresses for the priests and bandages for mummies; and the cotton manufacture, by which all who were not priests were supplied with clothes. The Egyptian fishery was very important. In the Berlin Museum there is an Egyptian micmoreth with lead attached.

The mode of working the flax by means of serikâh , pectinatio (compare סרוק, wool-combs, Kelim , 12, 2), is shown on the monuments. In the Berlin Museum there are also Egyptian combs of this description with which the flax was carded. The productions of the Egyptian looms were celebrated in antiquity: chōrây , lit. , white cloth ( singularet . with the old termination ay ), is the general name for cotton fabrics, or the different kinds of byssus that were woven there (compare the βυσσίνων ὀθονίων of the Rosetta inscription).

All the castes, from the highest to the lowest, are not thrown into agonies of despair. The shâthōth (an epithet that was probably suggested by the thought of shethi , a warp, Syr. 'ashti , to weave, through the natural association of ideas), i. e. , the “ pillars ” of the land (with a suffix relating to Mitzrayim , see at Isa 3:8, and construed as a masculine as at Psa 11:3), were the highest castes, who were the direct supporters of the state edifice; and שׂכר עשׂי cannot mean the citizens engaged in trade, i.

e. , the middle classes, but such of the people as hired themselves to the employers of labour, and therefore lived upon wages and not upon their own property (שׂכר is used here as in Pro 11:18, and not as equivalent to סכר, the dammers-up of the water for the purpose of catching the fish, like סכרין, Kelim , 23, 5).

Isa 19:5-10 The prophet then proceeds to foretell another misfortune which was coming upon Egypt: the Nile dries up, and with this the fertility of the land disappears. “And the waters will dry up from the sea, and the river is parched and dried. And the arms of the river spread a stench; the channels of Matzor become shallow and parched: reed and rush shrivel up.

The meadows by the Nile, on the border of the Nile, and every corn-field of the Nile, dries up, is scattered, and disappears. And the fishermen groan, and all who throw draw-nets into the Nile lament, and they that spread out the net upon the face of the waters languish away. And the workers of fine combed flax are confounded, and the weavers of cotton fabrics.

And the pillars of the land are ground to powder; all that work for wages are troubled in mind. ” In Isa 19:5 the Nile is called yâm (a sea), just as Homer calls it Oceanus , which, as Diodorus observes, was the name given by the natives to the river (Egypt. oham ). The White Nile is called bahr el - abyad (the White Sea), the Blue Nile bahr el - azrak , and the combined waters bahr eṅNil , or, in the language of the Besharîn, as here in Isaiah, yām .

And in the account of the creation, in Gen 1, <, yammim is the collective name for great seas and rivers. But the Nile itself is more like an inland sea than a river, from the point at which the great bodies of water brought down by the Blue Nile and the White Nile, which rises a few weeks later, flow together; partly on account of its great breadth, and partly also because of its remaining stagnant throughout the dry season.

It is not till the tropical rains commence that the swelling river begins to flow more rapidly, and the yâm becomes a nâhâr . But when, as is here threatened, the Nile sea and Nile river in Upper Egypt sink together and dry up ( nisshethu , niphal either of shâthath = nâshattu , to set, to grow shallow; or more probably from nâshath , to dry up, since Isa 41:17 and Jer 51:30 warrant the assumption that there was such a verb), the mouths (or arms ) of the Nile ( nehâr ), which flow through the Delta, and the many canals ( ye'orim ), by which the benefits of the overflow are conveyed to the Nile valley, are turned into stinking puddles (האזניחוּ, a hiphil , half substantive half verbal, unparalleled elsewhere, signifying to spread a stench; possibly it may have been used in the place of הזניח, from אזנח or אזנח, stinking, to which a different application was given in ordinary use).

In all probability it is not without intention that Isaiah uses the expression Mâtzor , inasmuch as he distinguishes Mâzort from Pathros (Isa 11:11), i. e. , Lower from Upper Egypt (Egyp. sa - het , the low land, and sa - res , the higher land), the two together being Mitzrayim . And ye'orim (by the side of nehâroth ) we are warranted in regarding as the name given of the Nile canals.

The canal system in Egypt and the system of irrigation are older than the invasion of the Hyksos (vid. , Lepsius, in Herzog’s Cyclopaedia ). On the other hand, ye'ōr in Isa 19:7 (where it is written three times plene , as it is also in Isa 19:8) is the Egyptian name of the Nile generally ( yaro ). It is repeated emphatically three times, like Mitzrayim in Isa 19:1.

Parallel to mizra‛ , but yet different from it, is ערות, from ערה, to be naked or bare, which signifies, like many derivatives of the synonymous word in Arabic, either open spaces, or as here, grassy tracts by the water-side, i. e. , meadows. Even the meadows, which lie close to the water-side ( pi = ora , as in Psa 133:2, not ostium ), and all the fields, become so parched, that they blow away like ashes.

Then the three leading sources from which Egypt derived its maintenance all fail: - viz. the fishing; the linen manufacture, which supplied dresses for the priests and bandages for mummies; and the cotton manufacture, by which all who were not priests were supplied with clothes. The Egyptian fishery was very important. In the Berlin Museum there is an Egyptian micmoreth with lead attached.

The mode of working the flax by means of serikâh , pectinatio (compare סרוק, wool-combs, Kelim , 12, 2), is shown on the monuments. In the Berlin Museum there are also Egyptian combs of this description with which the flax was carded. The productions of the Egyptian looms were celebrated in antiquity: chōrây , lit. , white cloth ( singularet . with the old termination ay ), is the general name for cotton fabrics, or the different kinds of byssus that were woven there (compare the βυσσίνων ὀθονίων of the Rosetta inscription).

All the castes, from the highest to the lowest, are not thrown into agonies of despair. The shâthōth (an epithet that was probably suggested by the thought of shethi , a warp, Syr. 'ashti , to weave, through the natural association of ideas), i. e. , the “ pillars ” of the land (with a suffix relating to Mitzrayim , see at Isa 3:8, and construed as a masculine as at Psa 11:3), were the highest castes, who were the direct supporters of the state edifice; and שׂכר עשׂי cannot mean the citizens engaged in trade, i.

e. , the middle classes, but such of the people as hired themselves to the employers of labour, and therefore lived upon wages and not upon their own property (שׂכר is used here as in Pro 11:18, and not as equivalent to סכר, the dammers-up of the water for the purpose of catching the fish, like סכרין, Kelim , 23, 5).

Isa 19:5-10 The prophet then proceeds to foretell another misfortune which was coming upon Egypt: the Nile dries up, and with this the fertility of the land disappears. “And the waters will dry up from the sea, and the river is parched and dried. And the arms of the river spread a stench; the channels of Matzor become shallow and parched: reed and rush shrivel up.

The meadows by the Nile, on the border of the Nile, and every corn-field of the Nile, dries up, is scattered, and disappears. And the fishermen groan, and all who throw draw-nets into the Nile lament, and they that spread out the net upon the face of the waters languish away. And the workers of fine combed flax are confounded, and the weavers of cotton fabrics.

And the pillars of the land are ground to powder; all that work for wages are troubled in mind. ” In Isa 19:5 the Nile is called yâm (a sea), just as Homer calls it Oceanus , which, as Diodorus observes, was the name given by the natives to the river (Egypt. oham ). The White Nile is called bahr el - abyad (the White Sea), the Blue Nile bahr el - azrak , and the combined waters bahr eṅNil , or, in the language of the Besharîn, as here in Isaiah, yām .

And in the account of the creation, in Gen 1, <, yammim is the collective name for great seas and rivers. But the Nile itself is more like an inland sea than a river, from the point at which the great bodies of water brought down by the Blue Nile and the White Nile, which rises a few weeks later, flow together; partly on account of its great breadth, and partly also because of its remaining stagnant throughout the dry season.

It is not till the tropical rains commence that the swelling river begins to flow more rapidly, and the yâm becomes a nâhâr . But when, as is here threatened, the Nile sea and Nile river in Upper Egypt sink together and dry up ( nisshethu , niphal either of shâthath = nâshattu , to set, to grow shallow; or more probably from nâshath , to dry up, since Isa 41:17 and Jer 51:30 warrant the assumption that there was such a verb), the mouths (or arms ) of the Nile ( nehâr ), which flow through the Delta, and the many canals ( ye'orim ), by which the benefits of the overflow are conveyed to the Nile valley, are turned into stinking puddles (האזניחוּ, a hiphil , half substantive half verbal, unparalleled elsewhere, signifying to spread a stench; possibly it may have been used in the place of הזניח, from אזנח or אזנח, stinking, to which a different application was given in ordinary use).

In all probability it is not without intention that Isaiah uses the expression Mâtzor , inasmuch as he distinguishes Mâzort from Pathros (Isa 11:11), i. e. , Lower from Upper Egypt (Egyp. sa - het , the low land, and sa - res , the higher land), the two together being Mitzrayim . And ye'orim (by the side of nehâroth ) we are warranted in regarding as the name given of the Nile canals.

The canal system in Egypt and the system of irrigation are older than the invasion of the Hyksos (vid. , Lepsius, in Herzog’s Cyclopaedia ). On the other hand, ye'ōr in Isa 19:7 (where it is written three times plene , as it is also in Isa 19:8) is the Egyptian name of the Nile generally ( yaro ). It is repeated emphatically three times, like Mitzrayim in Isa 19:1.

Parallel to mizra‛ , but yet different from it, is ערות, from ערה, to be naked or bare, which signifies, like many derivatives of the synonymous word in Arabic, either open spaces, or as here, grassy tracts by the water-side, i. e. , meadows. Even the meadows, which lie close to the water-side ( pi = ora , as in Psa 133:2, not ostium ), and all the fields, become so parched, that they blow away like ashes.

Then the three leading sources from which Egypt derived its maintenance all fail: - viz. the fishing; the linen manufacture, which supplied dresses for the priests and bandages for mummies; and the cotton manufacture, by which all who were not priests were supplied with clothes. The Egyptian fishery was very important. In the Berlin Museum there is an Egyptian micmoreth with lead attached.

The mode of working the flax by means of serikâh , pectinatio (compare סרוק, wool-combs, Kelim , 12, 2), is shown on the monuments. In the Berlin Museum there are also Egyptian combs of this description with which the flax was carded. The productions of the Egyptian looms were celebrated in antiquity: chōrây , lit. , white cloth ( singularet . with the old termination ay ), is the general name for cotton fabrics, or the different kinds of byssus that were woven there (compare the βυσσίνων ὀθονίων of the Rosetta inscription).

All the castes, from the highest to the lowest, are not thrown into agonies of despair. The shâthōth (an epithet that was probably suggested by the thought of shethi , a warp, Syr. 'ashti , to weave, through the natural association of ideas), i. e. , the “ pillars ” of the land (with a suffix relating to Mitzrayim , see at Isa 3:8, and construed as a masculine as at Psa 11:3), were the highest castes, who were the direct supporters of the state edifice; and שׂכר עשׂי cannot mean the citizens engaged in trade, i.

e. , the middle classes, but such of the people as hired themselves to the employers of labour, and therefore lived upon wages and not upon their own property (שׂכר is used here as in Pro 11:18, and not as equivalent to סכר, the dammers-up of the water for the purpose of catching the fish, like סכרין, Kelim , 23, 5).

Isa 19:11-13 The prophet now dwells upon the punishment which falls upon the pillars of the land, and describes it in Isa 19:11-13 : “The princes of Zoan become mere fools, the wise counsellors of Pharaoh; readiness in counsel is stupefied. How can ye say to Pharaoh, I am a son of wise men, a son of kings of the olden time? Where are they then, thy wise men?

Let them announce to thee, and know what Jehovah of hosts hath determined concerning Egypt. The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; and they have led Egypt astray who are the corner-stone of its castes. ” The two constructives יעצי חכמי do not stand in a subordinate relation, but in a co-ordinate one (see at Psa 78:9 and Job 20:17; compare also 2Ki 17:13, Keri ), viz.

, “the wise men, counsellors of Pharaoh,” so that the second noun is the explanatory permutative of the first. Zoan is the Tanis of primeval times (Num 13:22), which was situated on one of the arms through which the Nile flows into the sea (viz. , the ostium Taniticum ), and was the home from which two dynasties sprang. Noph ( per aphaer . = Menoph , contracted into Moph in Hos 9:6) is Memphis , probably the seat of the Pharaohs in the time of Joseph, and raised by Psammetichus into the metropolis of the whole kingdom.

The village of Mitrahenni still stands upon its ruins, with the Serapeum to the north-west. Consequently princes of Zoan and Memphis are princes of the chief cities of the land, and of the supposed primeval pedigree; probably priest-princes, since the wisdom of the Egyptian priest was of world-wide renown (Herod. ii. 77, 260), and the oldest kings of Egypt sprang from the priestly caste.

Even in the time of Hezekiah, when the military caste had long become the ruling one, the priests once more succeeded in raising one of their own number, namely Sethos, to the throne of Sais. These magnates of Egypt, with their wisdom, would be turned into fools by the history of Egypt of the immediate future; and (this is the meaning of the sarcastic “how can ye say”) they would no longer trust themselves to boast of their hereditary priestly wisdom, or their royal descent, when giving counsel to Pharaoh.

They were the corner-stone of the shebâtim , i. e. , of the castes of Egypt (not of the districts or provinces, νομοί); but instead of supporting and defending their people, it is now very evident that they only led them astray. התעוּ, as the Masora on Isa 19:15 observes, has no Vav cop .

Isa 19:11-13 The prophet now dwells upon the punishment which falls upon the pillars of the land, and describes it in Isa 19:11-13 : “The princes of Zoan become mere fools, the wise counsellors of Pharaoh; readiness in counsel is stupefied. How can ye say to Pharaoh, I am a son of wise men, a son of kings of the olden time? Where are they then, thy wise men?

Let them announce to thee, and know what Jehovah of hosts hath determined concerning Egypt. The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; and they have led Egypt astray who are the corner-stone of its castes. ” The two constructives יעצי חכמי do not stand in a subordinate relation, but in a co-ordinate one (see at Psa 78:9 and Job 20:17; compare also 2Ki 17:13, Keri ), viz.

, “the wise men, counsellors of Pharaoh,” so that the second noun is the explanatory permutative of the first. Zoan is the Tanis of primeval times (Num 13:22), which was situated on one of the arms through which the Nile flows into the sea (viz. , the ostium Taniticum ), and was the home from which two dynasties sprang. Noph ( per aphaer . = Menoph , contracted into Moph in Hos 9:6) is Memphis , probably the seat of the Pharaohs in the time of Joseph, and raised by Psammetichus into the metropolis of the whole kingdom.

The village of Mitrahenni still stands upon its ruins, with the Serapeum to the north-west. Consequently princes of Zoan and Memphis are princes of the chief cities of the land, and of the supposed primeval pedigree; probably priest-princes, since the wisdom of the Egyptian priest was of world-wide renown (Herod. ii. 77, 260), and the oldest kings of Egypt sprang from the priestly caste.

Even in the time of Hezekiah, when the military caste had long become the ruling one, the priests once more succeeded in raising one of their own number, namely Sethos, to the throne of Sais. These magnates of Egypt, with their wisdom, would be turned into fools by the history of Egypt of the immediate future; and (this is the meaning of the sarcastic “how can ye say”) they would no longer trust themselves to boast of their hereditary priestly wisdom, or their royal descent, when giving counsel to Pharaoh.

They were the corner-stone of the shebâtim , i. e. , of the castes of Egypt (not of the districts or provinces, νομοί); but instead of supporting and defending their people, it is now very evident that they only led them astray. התעוּ, as the Masora on Isa 19:15 observes, has no Vav cop .

Isa 19:11-13 The prophet now dwells upon the punishment which falls upon the pillars of the land, and describes it in Isa 19:11-13 : “The princes of Zoan become mere fools, the wise counsellors of Pharaoh; readiness in counsel is stupefied. How can ye say to Pharaoh, I am a son of wise men, a son of kings of the olden time? Where are they then, thy wise men?

Let them announce to thee, and know what Jehovah of hosts hath determined concerning Egypt. The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; and they have led Egypt astray who are the corner-stone of its castes. ” The two constructives יעצי חכמי do not stand in a subordinate relation, but in a co-ordinate one (see at Psa 78:9 and Job 20:17; compare also 2Ki 17:13, Keri ), viz.

, “the wise men, counsellors of Pharaoh,” so that the second noun is the explanatory permutative of the first. Zoan is the Tanis of primeval times (Num 13:22), which was situated on one of the arms through which the Nile flows into the sea (viz. , the ostium Taniticum ), and was the home from which two dynasties sprang. Noph ( per aphaer . = Menoph , contracted into Moph in Hos 9:6) is Memphis , probably the seat of the Pharaohs in the time of Joseph, and raised by Psammetichus into the metropolis of the whole kingdom.

The village of Mitrahenni still stands upon its ruins, with the Serapeum to the north-west. Consequently princes of Zoan and Memphis are princes of the chief cities of the land, and of the supposed primeval pedigree; probably priest-princes, since the wisdom of the Egyptian priest was of world-wide renown (Herod. ii. 77, 260), and the oldest kings of Egypt sprang from the priestly caste.

Even in the time of Hezekiah, when the military caste had long become the ruling one, the priests once more succeeded in raising one of their own number, namely Sethos, to the throne of Sais. These magnates of Egypt, with their wisdom, would be turned into fools by the history of Egypt of the immediate future; and (this is the meaning of the sarcastic “how can ye say”) they would no longer trust themselves to boast of their hereditary priestly wisdom, or their royal descent, when giving counsel to Pharaoh.

They were the corner-stone of the shebâtim , i. e. , of the castes of Egypt (not of the districts or provinces, νομοί); but instead of supporting and defending their people, it is now very evident that they only led them astray. התעוּ, as the Masora on Isa 19:15 observes, has no Vav cop .

Isa 19:14-15 In Isa 19:14 and Isa 19:15 this state of confusion is more minutely described: “Jehovah hath poured a spirit of giddiness into the heart of Egypt, so that they have led Egypt astray in all its doing, as a drunken man wandereth about in his vomit. And there does not occur of Egypt any work, which worked, of head and tail, palm-branch and rush. ” The spirit which God pours out (as it also said elsewhere) is not only a spirit of salvation, but also a spirit of judgment.

The judicial, penal result which He produces is here called עועים, which is formed from עועו (root עו, to curve), and is either contracted from עועוים, or points back to a supposed singular עועה (vid. , Ewald, §158, b ). The suffix in b'kribâh points to Egypt. The divine spirit of judgment makes use of the imaginary wisdom of the priestly caste, and thereby plunges the people, as it were, into the giddiness of intoxication.

The prophet employs the hiphil התעה to denote the carefully considered actions of the leaders of the nation, and the niphal נתעה to denote the constrained actions of a drunken man, who has lost all self-control. The nation has been so perverted by false counsels and hopes, that it lies there like a drunken man in his own vomit, and gropes and rolls about, without being able to find any way of escape.

“No work that worked,” i. e. , that averted trouble (עשׂה is as emphatic as in Dan 8:24), was successfully carried out by any one, either by the leaders of the nation or by the common people and their flatterers, either by the upper classes or by the mob.

Isa 19:14-15 In Isa 19:14 and Isa 19:15 this state of confusion is more minutely described: “Jehovah hath poured a spirit of giddiness into the heart of Egypt, so that they have led Egypt astray in all its doing, as a drunken man wandereth about in his vomit. And there does not occur of Egypt any work, which worked, of head and tail, palm-branch and rush. ” The spirit which God pours out (as it also said elsewhere) is not only a spirit of salvation, but also a spirit of judgment.

The judicial, penal result which He produces is here called עועים, which is formed from עועו (root עו, to curve), and is either contracted from עועוים, or points back to a supposed singular עועה (vid. , Ewald, §158, b ). The suffix in b'kribâh points to Egypt. The divine spirit of judgment makes use of the imaginary wisdom of the priestly caste, and thereby plunges the people, as it were, into the giddiness of intoxication.

The prophet employs the hiphil התעה to denote the carefully considered actions of the leaders of the nation, and the niphal נתעה to denote the constrained actions of a drunken man, who has lost all self-control. The nation has been so perverted by false counsels and hopes, that it lies there like a drunken man in his own vomit, and gropes and rolls about, without being able to find any way of escape.

“No work that worked,” i. e. , that averted trouble (עשׂה is as emphatic as in Dan 8:24), was successfully carried out by any one, either by the leaders of the nation or by the common people and their flatterers, either by the upper classes or by the mob.

Isa 19:16-17 The result of all these plagues, which were coming upon Egypt, would be fear of Jehovah and of the people of Jehovah. “In that day will the Egyptians become like women, and tremble and be alarmed at the swinging of the hand of Jehovah of hosts, which He sets in motion against it. And the land of Judah becomes a shuddering for Egypt; as often as they mention this against Egypt, it is alarmed, because of the decree of Jehovah of hosts, that He suspendeth over it.

” The swinging ( tenuphâh ) of the hand (Isa 30:32) points back to the foregoing judgments, which have fallen upon Egypt blow after blow. These humiliations make the Egyptians as soft and timid as women ( tert. compar. , not as in Isa 13:7-8; Isa 21:3-4). And the sacred soil of Judah ( 'adâmâh , as in Isa 14:1-2; Isa 32:13), which Egypt has so often made the scene of war, throws them into giddiness, into agitation at the sight of terrors, whenever it is mentioned (אשׁר כּל, cf.

, 1Sa 2:13, lit. , “whoever,” equivalent to “as often as any one,” Ewald, §337, 3, f ; חגּא is written according to the Aramaean form, with Aleph for He , like זרא) in Num 11:20, קרחא in Ezek. 37:31, compare כּלּא, Eze 36:5, and similar in form to חפה in Isa 4:5). The author of the plagues is well known to them, their faith in the idols is shaken, and the desire arises in their heart to avert fresh plagues by presents to Jehovah.

Isa 19:16-17 The result of all these plagues, which were coming upon Egypt, would be fear of Jehovah and of the people of Jehovah. “In that day will the Egyptians become like women, and tremble and be alarmed at the swinging of the hand of Jehovah of hosts, which He sets in motion against it. And the land of Judah becomes a shuddering for Egypt; as often as they mention this against Egypt, it is alarmed, because of the decree of Jehovah of hosts, that He suspendeth over it.

” The swinging ( tenuphâh ) of the hand (Isa 30:32) points back to the foregoing judgments, which have fallen upon Egypt blow after blow. These humiliations make the Egyptians as soft and timid as women ( tert. compar. , not as in Isa 13:7-8; Isa 21:3-4). And the sacred soil of Judah ( 'adâmâh , as in Isa 14:1-2; Isa 32:13), which Egypt has so often made the scene of war, throws them into giddiness, into agitation at the sight of terrors, whenever it is mentioned (אשׁר כּל, cf.

, 1Sa 2:13, lit. , “whoever,” equivalent to “as often as any one,” Ewald, §337, 3, f ; חגּא is written according to the Aramaean form, with Aleph for He , like זרא) in Num 11:20, קרחא in Ezek. 37:31, compare כּלּא, Eze 36:5, and similar in form to חפה in Isa 4:5). The author of the plagues is well known to them, their faith in the idols is shaken, and the desire arises in their heart to avert fresh plagues by presents to Jehovah.

Isa 19:18 At first there is only slavish fear; but there is the beginning of a turn to something better. “In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan, and swearing to Jehovah of hosts: 'Ir ha-Heres will one be called. ” Five cities are very few for Egypt, which was completely covered with cities; but this is simply a fragmentary commencement of Egypt’s future and complete conversion.

The description given of them, as beginning to speak the language of Canaan, i. e. , the sacred language of the worship of Jehovah (comp. Zep 3:9), and to give themselves up to Jehovah with vows made on oath, is simply a periphrastic announcement of the conversion of the five cities. ל נשׁבּע (different from בּ נשׁבּע, Isa 65:16, as Isa 45:23 clearly shows) signifies to swear to a person, to promise him fidelity, to give one’s self up to him.

One of these five will be called ‛Ir ha - Heres . As this is evidently intended for a proper name, lâ'echât does not mean unicuique , as in Jdg 8:18 and Eze 1:6, but uni . It is a customary thing with Isaiah to express the nature of anything under the form of some future name (vid. , Isa 4:3; Isa 32:5; Isa 61:6; Isa 62:4). The name in this instance, therefore, must have a distinctive and promising meaning.

But what does ‛Ir ha - Heres mean? The Septuagint has changed it into πόλις ἀσεδέκ, equivalent to ‛Ir hazzedek (city of righteousness), possibly in honour of the temple in the Heliopolitan nomos , which was founded under Ptolemaeus Philometor about 160 b. c. , during the Syrian reign of terror, by Onias IV, son of the high priest Onias III, who emigrated to Egypt.

Maurer in his Lexicon imagines that he has found the true meaning, when he renders it “city of rescue;” but the progressive advance from the meaning “to pull off' to that of “setting free” cannot be established in the case of the verb hâras ; in fact, hâras does not mean to pull off or pull out, but to pull down. Heres cannot have any other meaning in Hebrew than that of “destruction.

” But as this appears unsuitable, it is more natural to read ‛Ir ha - cheres (which is found in some codices, though in opposition to the Masora). This is now generally rendered “city of protection” (Rosenmüller, Ewald, Knobel, and Meier), as being equivalent to an Arabic word signifying divinitus protecta . But such an appeal to the Arabic is contrary to all Hebrew usage, and is always a very precarious loophole.

‛Ir ha - cheres would mean “city of the sun” ( cheres as in Job 9:7 and Jdg 14:18), as the Talmud in the leading passage concerning the Onias temple (in b. Menahoth 110 a ) thinks that even the received reading may be understood in accordance with Job 9:7, and says “it is a description of the sun. ” “Sun-city” was really the name of one of the most celebrated of the old Egyptian cities, viz.

, Heliopolis , the city of the sun-god Ra , which was situated to the north-east of Memphis, and is called On in other passages of the Old Testament. Ezekiel (Eze 30:17) alters this into Aven , for the purpose of branding the idolatry of the city. But this alteration of the well-attested text is a mistake; and the true explanation is, that Ir - hahares is simply used with a play upon the name Ir - hacheres .

This is the explanation given by the Targum: “Heliopolis, whose future fate will be destruction. ” But even if the name is intended to have a distinctive and promising meaning, it is impossible to adopt the explanation given by Luzzatto, “a city restored from the ruins;” for the name points to destruction, not to restoration. Moreover, Heliopolis never has been restored since the time of its destruction, which Strabo dates as far back as the Persian invasion.

There is nothing left standing now out of all its monuments but one granite obelisk: they are all either destroyed, or carried away, like the so-called “Cleopatra’s Needle,” or sunk in the soil of the Nile (Parthey on Plutarch, de Iside , p. 162). This destruction cannot be the one intended. But hâras is the word commonly used to signify the throwing down of heathen altars (Jdg 6:25; 1Ki 18:30; 1Ki 19:10, 1Ki 19:14); and the meaning of the prophecy may be, that the city which had hitherto been ‛Ir - ha - cheres , the chief city of the sun-worship, would become the city of the destruction of idolatry, as Jeremiah prophesies in Isa 43:13, “Jehovah will break in pieces the obelisks of the sun-temple in the land of Egypt.

” Hence Herzfeld’s interpretation: “ City of demolished Idols ”. It is true that in this case ha - heres merely announces the breaking up of the old, and does not say what new thing will rise upon the ruins of the old; but the context leaves no doubt as to this new thing, and the one-sided character of the description is to be accounted for from the intentional play upon the actual name of that one city out of the five to which the prophet gives especial prominence.

With this interpretation - for which indeed we cannot pretend to find any special confirmation in the actual fulfilment in the history of the church, and, so to speak, the history of missions - the train of thought in the prophet’s mind which led to the following groove of promises is a very obvious one.

Isa 19:19-20 The allusion to the sun-city, which had become the city of destruction, led to the mazzeboth or obelisks (see Jer 43:13), which were standing there on the spot where Ra was worshipped. “In that day there stands an altar consecrated to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and an obelisk near the border of the land consecrated to Jehovah. And a sign and a witness for Jehovah of hosts is this in the land of Egypt: when they cry to Jehovah for oppressors, He will send them a helper and champion, and deliver them.

” This is the passage of Isaiah (not v. 18) to which Onias IV appealed, when he sought permission of Ptolemaeus Philometor to build a temple of Jehovah in Egypt. He built such a temple in the nomos of Heliopolis, 180 stadia (22 1/2 miles) to the north-east of Memphis (Josephus, Bell . vii. 10, 3), and on the foundation and soil of the ὀχύρωμα in Leontopolis, which was dedicated to Bubastis ( Ant .

xiii. 3, 1, 2). This temple, which was altogether unlike the temple of Jerusalem in its outward appearance, being built in the form of a castle, and which stood for more than two hundred years (from 160 b. c. to a. d. 71, when it was closed by command of Vespasian), was splendidly furnished and much frequented; but the recognition of it was strongly contested both in Palestine and Egypt.

It was really situated “in the midst of the land of Egypt. ” But it is out of the question to seek in this temple for the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah, from the simple fact that it was by Jews and for Jews that it was erected. And where, in that case, would the obelisk be, which, as Isaiah prophesies, was to stand on the border of Egypt, i. e. , on the side towards the desert and Canaan?

The altar was to be “ a sign ” ( 'oth ) that there were worshippers of Jehovah in Egypt; and the obelisk a “witness” ( ‛ēd ) that Jehovah had proved Himself, to Egypt’s salvation, to be the God of the gods of Egypt. And now, if they who erected this place of worship and this monument cried to Jehovah, He would show Himself ready to help them; and they would no longer cry in vain, as they had formerly done to their own idols (Isa 19:3).

Consequently it is the approaching conversion of the native Egyptians that is here spoken of. The fact that from the Grecian epoch Judaism became a power in Egypt, is certainly not unconnected with this. But we should be able to trace this connection more closely, if we had any information as to the extent to which Judaism had then spread among the natives, which we do know to have been by no means small.

The therapeutae described by Philo, which were spread through all the nomoi of Egypt, were of a mixed Egypto-Jewish character (vid. , Philo, Opp . ii. p. 474, ed. Mangey). It was a victory on the part of the religion of Jehovah, that Egypt was covered with Jewish synagogues and coenobia even in the age before Christ. And Alexandra was the place where the law of Jehovah was translated into Greek, and thus made accessible to the heathen world, and where the religion of Jehovah created for itself those forms of language and thought, under which it was to become, as Christianity, the religion of the world.

And after the introduction of Christianity into the world, there were more than one mazzebah (obelisk) that were met with on the way from Palestine to Egypt, even by the end of the first century, and more than one mizbeach (altar) found in the heart of Egypt itself. The importance of Alexandria and of the monasticism and anachoretism of the peninsula of Sinai and also of Egypt, in connection with the history of the spread of Christianity, is very well known.

Isa 19:19-20 The allusion to the sun-city, which had become the city of destruction, led to the mazzeboth or obelisks (see Jer 43:13), which were standing there on the spot where Ra was worshipped. “In that day there stands an altar consecrated to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and an obelisk near the border of the land consecrated to Jehovah. And a sign and a witness for Jehovah of hosts is this in the land of Egypt: when they cry to Jehovah for oppressors, He will send them a helper and champion, and deliver them.

” This is the passage of Isaiah (not v. 18) to which Onias IV appealed, when he sought permission of Ptolemaeus Philometor to build a temple of Jehovah in Egypt. He built such a temple in the nomos of Heliopolis, 180 stadia (22 1/2 miles) to the north-east of Memphis (Josephus, Bell . vii. 10, 3), and on the foundation and soil of the ὀχύρωμα in Leontopolis, which was dedicated to Bubastis ( Ant .

xiii. 3, 1, 2). This temple, which was altogether unlike the temple of Jerusalem in its outward appearance, being built in the form of a castle, and which stood for more than two hundred years (from 160 b. c. to a. d. 71, when it was closed by command of Vespasian), was splendidly furnished and much frequented; but the recognition of it was strongly contested both in Palestine and Egypt.

It was really situated “in the midst of the land of Egypt. ” But it is out of the question to seek in this temple for the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah, from the simple fact that it was by Jews and for Jews that it was erected. And where, in that case, would the obelisk be, which, as Isaiah prophesies, was to stand on the border of Egypt, i. e. , on the side towards the desert and Canaan?

The altar was to be “ a sign ” ( 'oth ) that there were worshippers of Jehovah in Egypt; and the obelisk a “witness” ( ‛ēd ) that Jehovah had proved Himself, to Egypt’s salvation, to be the God of the gods of Egypt. And now, if they who erected this place of worship and this monument cried to Jehovah, He would show Himself ready to help them; and they would no longer cry in vain, as they had formerly done to their own idols (Isa 19:3).

Consequently it is the approaching conversion of the native Egyptians that is here spoken of. The fact that from the Grecian epoch Judaism became a power in Egypt, is certainly not unconnected with this. But we should be able to trace this connection more closely, if we had any information as to the extent to which Judaism had then spread among the natives, which we do know to have been by no means small.

The therapeutae described by Philo, which were spread through all the nomoi of Egypt, were of a mixed Egypto-Jewish character (vid. , Philo, Opp . ii. p. 474, ed. Mangey). It was a victory on the part of the religion of Jehovah, that Egypt was covered with Jewish synagogues and coenobia even in the age before Christ. And Alexandra was the place where the law of Jehovah was translated into Greek, and thus made accessible to the heathen world, and where the religion of Jehovah created for itself those forms of language and thought, under which it was to become, as Christianity, the religion of the world.

And after the introduction of Christianity into the world, there were more than one mazzebah (obelisk) that were met with on the way from Palestine to Egypt, even by the end of the first century, and more than one mizbeach (altar) found in the heart of Egypt itself. The importance of Alexandria and of the monasticism and anachoretism of the peninsula of Sinai and also of Egypt, in connection with the history of the spread of Christianity, is very well known.

Isa 19:21-22 When Egypt became the prey of Islam in the year 640, there was already to be seen, at all events in the form of a magnificent prelude, the fulfilment of what the prophet foretells in Isa 19:21, Isa 19:22 : “And Jehovah makes Himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians know Jehovah in that day; and they serve with slain-offerings and meat-offerings, and vow vows to Jehovah, and pay them. And Jehovah smites Egypt, smiting and healing; and if they return to Jehovah, He suffers Himself to be entreated, and heals them.

” From that small commencement of five cities, and a solitary altar, and one solitary obelisk, it has now come to this: Jehovah extends the knowledge of Himself to the whole of Egypt ענודע, reflective se cognoscendum dare , or neuter innotescere ), and throughout all Egypt there arises the knowledge of God, which soon shows itself in acts of worship. This worship is represented by the prophet, just as we should expect according to the Old Testament view, as consisting in the offering of bleeding and bloodless, or legal and free-will offerings: ועבדוּ, viz.

, את־יהוה, so that עבד is construed with a double accusative, as in Exo 10:26, cf. , Gen 30:29; or it may possibly be used directly in the sense of sacrificing, as in the Phoenician, and like עשׂה in the Thorah ; and even if we took it in this sense, it would yield no evidence against Isaiah’s authorship (compare Isa 28:21; Isa 32:17). Egypt, though converted, is still sinful; but Jehovah smites it, “smiting and healing” ( nâgoph verâpho' , compare 1Ki 20:37), so that in the act of smiting the intention of healing prevails; and healing follows the smiting, since the chastisement of Jehovah leads it to repentance.

Thus Egypt is now under the same plan of salvation as Israel (e. g. , Lev 26:44; Deu 32:36).

Isa 19:21-22 When Egypt became the prey of Islam in the year 640, there was already to be seen, at all events in the form of a magnificent prelude, the fulfilment of what the prophet foretells in Isa 19:21, Isa 19:22 : “And Jehovah makes Himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians know Jehovah in that day; and they serve with slain-offerings and meat-offerings, and vow vows to Jehovah, and pay them. And Jehovah smites Egypt, smiting and healing; and if they return to Jehovah, He suffers Himself to be entreated, and heals them.

” From that small commencement of five cities, and a solitary altar, and one solitary obelisk, it has now come to this: Jehovah extends the knowledge of Himself to the whole of Egypt ענודע, reflective se cognoscendum dare , or neuter innotescere ), and throughout all Egypt there arises the knowledge of God, which soon shows itself in acts of worship. This worship is represented by the prophet, just as we should expect according to the Old Testament view, as consisting in the offering of bleeding and bloodless, or legal and free-will offerings: ועבדוּ, viz.

, את־יהוה, so that עבד is construed with a double accusative, as in Exo 10:26, cf. , Gen 30:29; or it may possibly be used directly in the sense of sacrificing, as in the Phoenician, and like עשׂה in the Thorah ; and even if we took it in this sense, it would yield no evidence against Isaiah’s authorship (compare Isa 28:21; Isa 32:17). Egypt, though converted, is still sinful; but Jehovah smites it, “smiting and healing” ( nâgoph verâpho' , compare 1Ki 20:37), so that in the act of smiting the intention of healing prevails; and healing follows the smiting, since the chastisement of Jehovah leads it to repentance.

Thus Egypt is now under the same plan of salvation as Israel (e. g. , Lev 26:44; Deu 32:36).

Isa 19:23 Asshur, as we already know from Isa 18:1-7, is equally humbled; so that now the two great powers, which have hitherto only met as enemies, meet in the worship of Jehovah, which unites them together. “In that day a road will run from Egypt to Asshur, and Asshur comes into Egypt, and Egypt to Asshur; and Egypt worships ( Jehovah ) with Asshur. ” את is not a sign of the accusative, for there can be no longer any idea of the subjection of Egypt to Asshur: on the contrary, it is a preposition indicating fellowship; and עבדוּ is used in the sense of worship, as in Isa 19:21.

Friendly intercourse is established between Egypt and Assyria by the fact that both nations are now converted to Jehovah. The road of communication runs through Canaan.

Isa 19:24-25 Thus is the way prepared for the highest point of all, which the prophet foretells in Isa 19:24, Isa 19:25 : “In that day will Israel be the third part to Egypt and Asshur, a blessing in the midst of the earth, since Jehovah of hosts blesseth them thus: Blessed be thou, my people Egypt; and thou Asshur, the work of my hands; and thou Israel, mine inheritance. ” Israel is added to the covenant between Egypt and Asshur, so that it becomes a tripartite covenant in which Israel forms the “third part” ( sheilshiyyâh , tertia pars , like ‛ası̄ryyâh , decima pars , in Isa 6:13).

Israel has now reached the great end of its calling - to be a blessing in “the midst of the earth” ( b'kereb hâ'âretz , in the whole circuit of the earth), all nations being here represented by Egypt and Assyria. Hitherto it had been only to the disadvantage of Israel to be situated between Egypt and Assyria. The history of the Ephraimitish kingdom, as well as that of Judah, clearly proves this.

If Israel relied upon Egypt, it deceived itself, and was deceived; and if it relied on Assyria, it only became the slave of Assyria, and had Egypt for a foe. Thus Israel was in a most painful vise between the two great powers of the earth, the western and the eastern powers. But how will all this be altered now! Egypt and Assyria become one in Jehovah, and Israel the third in the covenant.

Israel is lo longer the only nation of God, the creation of God, the heir of God; but all this applies to Egypt and Assyria now, as well as to Israel. To give full expression to this, Israel’s three titles of honour are mixed together, and each of the three nations receives one of the choice names - nachali , “my inheritance,” being reserved for Israel, as pointing back to its earliest history.

This essential equalization of the heathen nations and Israel is no degradation to the latter. For although from this time forward there is to be no essential difference between the nations in their relation to God, it is still the God of Israel who obtains this universal recognition, and the nation of Israel that has become, according to the promise, the medium of blessing to the world.

Thus has the second half of the prophecy ascended step by step from salvation to salvation, as the first descended step by step from judgment to judgment. The culminating point in Isa 19:25 answers to the lowest point in Isa 19:15. Every step in the ascending half is indicated by the expression “in that day. ” Six times do we find this sign-post to the future within the limits of Isa 19:16-25.

This expression is almost as characteristic of Isaiah as the corresponding expression, “Behold, the days come” ( hinneh yâm bâ'im ), is of Jeremiah (compare, for example, Isa 7:18-25). And it is more particularly in the promising or Messianic portions of the prophecy that it is so favourite an introduction (Isa 11:10-11; Isa 12:1; compare Zech). Nevertheless, the genuineness of Isa 19:16-25 has recently been called in question, more especially by Hitzig.

Sometimes this passage has not been found fanatical enough to have emanated from Isaiah, i. e. , too free from hatred towards the heathen; whereas, on the other hand, Knobel adduces evidence that the prophet was no fanatic at all. Sometimes it is too fanatical; in reply to which we observe, that there never was a prophet of God in the world who did not appear to a “sound human understanding” to be beside himself, since, even assuming that this human understanding be sound, it is only within the four sides of its own peculiar province that it is so.

Again, in Isa 19:18, Isa 19:19, a prophecy has been discovered which is too special to be Isaiah’s, in opposition to which Knobel proves that it is not so special as is supposed. But it is quite special enough; and this can never astonish any one who can discern in the prophecy a revelation of the future communicated by God, whereas in itself it neither proves nor disproves the authorship of Isaiah.

So far as the other arguments adduced against the genuineness are concerned, they have been answered exhaustively by Caspari, in a paper which he contributed on the subject to the Lutherische Zeitschrift , 1841, 3. Hävernick, in his Introduction , has not been able to do anything better than appropriate the arguments adduced by Caspari. And we will not repeat for a third time what has been said twice already.

The two halves of the prophecy are like the two wings of a bird. And it is only through its second half that the prophecy becomes the significant centre of the Ethiopic and Egyptian trilogy. For chapter 19 predicts the saving effect that will be produced upon Egypt by the destruction of Assyria. And Isa 19:23. announces what will become of Assyria. Assyria will also pass through judgment to salvation.

This eschatological conclusion to chapter 19, in which Egypt and Assyria are raised above themselves into representatives of the two halves of the heathen world, is the golden clasp which connects chapters 19 and Isa 20:1-6. We now turn to this third portion of the trilogy, which bears the same relation to chapter 19 as Isa 16:13-14 to Isaiah 15-16:12. In passing to our exposition of the book, the first thing which strikes us is its traditional title - Yeshaiah (Isaiah).

In the book itself, and throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, the prophet is called Yeshayahu ; and the shorter form is found in the latest books as the name of other persons. It was a common thing in the very earliest times for the shorter forms of such names to be used interchangeably with the longer; but in later times the shorter was the only form employed, and for this reason it was the one adopted in the traditional title.

The name is a compound one, and signifies “Jehovah’s salvation. ” The prophet was conscious that it was not merely by accident that he bore this name; for ישׁע (he shall save) and ישׁוּעה (salvation) are among his favourite words. It may be said, in fact, that he lived and moved altogether in the coming salvation, which was to proceed from Jehovah, and would be realized hereafter, when Jehovah should come at last to His people as He had never come before.

This salvation was the goal of the sacred history ( Heilsgeschichte , literally, history of salvation); and Jehovah was the peculiar name of God in relation to that history. It denotes “the existing one,” not however “the always existing,” i. e. , eternal, as Bunsen and the Jewish translators render it, but “existing evermore,” i. e. , filling all history, and displaying His glory therein in grace and truth.

The ultimate goal of this historical process, in which God was ever ruling as the absolutely free One, according to His own self-assertion in Exo 3:14, was true and essential salvation , proceeding outwards from Israel, and eventually embracing all mankind. In the name of the prophet the tetragrammaton יהוה is contracted into יהו (יה) by the dropping of the second ה.

We may easily see from this contraction that the name of God was pronounced with an a sound, so that it was either called Yahveh , or rather Yahaveh , or else Yahvâh , or rather Yahavâh . According to Theodoret, it was pronounced ̓Ιαβε ( Yahaveh ) by the Samaritans; and it is written in the same way in the list of the names of the Deity given in Epiphanius. That the ah sound was also a customary pronunciation, may not only be gathered from such names as Jimnah, Jimrah, Jishvah, Jishpah (compare Jithlah, the name of a place), but is also expressly attested by the ancient variations, Jao , Jeuo , Jo (Jer 23:6, lxx), on the one hand, and on the other hand by the mode of spelling adopted by Origen ( Jaoia ) and Theodoret ( Aia , not only in quaest , in Ex .

§15, but also in Fab. haeret . “ Aia signifies the existing one; it was pronounced thus by Hebrews, but the Samaritans call it Jabai, overlooking the force of the word”). The dull-sounding long a could be expressed by omega quite as well as by alpha . Isidor follows these and similar testimonies, and says ( Orig . vii. 7), “The tetragrammaton consisted of ia written twice ( iaia ), and with this reduplication it constituted the unutterable and glorious name of God.

” The Arabic form adopted by the Samaritans leaves it uncertain whether it is to be pronounced Yahve or Yahva . They wrote to Job Ludolf (in the Epistola Samaritana Sichemitarum tertia , published by Bruns, 1781), in opposition to the statement of Theodoret, that they pronounced the last syllable with damma ; that is to say, they pronounced the name Yahavoh ( Yahvoh ), which was the form in which it was written in the last century by Velthusen, and also by Muffi in his Disegno di lezioni e di ricerche sulla lingua Ebraica (Pavia, 1792).

The pronunciation Jehovah ( Yehovah ) arose out of a combination of the Keri and the chethib , and has only become current since the time of the Reformation. Genebrard denounces it in his Commentary upon the Psalms with the utmost vehemence, in opposition to Beza, as an intolerable innovation. “Ungodly violators of what is most ancient,” he says, “profaning and transforming the unutterable name of God, would read Jova or Jehova - a new, barbarous, fictitious, and irreligious word, that savours strongly of the Jove of the heathen.

” Nevertheless his Jehova ( Jova ) forced its way into general adoption, and we shall therefore retain it, notwithstanding the fact that the o sound is decidedly wrong. To return, then: the prophet’s name signifies “Jehovah’s salvation. ” In the Septuagint it is always written ̔Ησαΐ̀ας, with a strong aspirate; in the Vulgate it is written Isaias , and sometimes Esaias .

In turning from the outward to the inward title, which is contained in the book itself, there are two things to be observed at the outset: (1.) The division of the vv. indicated by soph pasuk is an arrangement for which the way was prepared as early as the time of the Talmud, and which was firmly established in the Masoretic schools; and consequently it reaches as far back as the extreme limits of the middle ages - differing in this respect from the division of vv.

in the New Testament. The arrangement of the chapters, however, with the indications of the separate sections of the prophetic collection, is of no worth to us, simply because it is not older than the thirteenth century. According to some authorities, it originated with Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury († 1227); whilst others attribute it to Cardinal Hugo of St.

Caro († 1262). It is only since the fifteenth century that it has been actually adopted in the text. (2.) The small ring or star at the commencement points to the footnote, which affirms that Isaiah 1:1-28 (where we find the same sign again) was the haphtarah , or concluding pericope , taken from the prophets, which was read on the same Sabbath as the parashah from the Pentateuch, in Deu 1:1.

It was, as we shall afterwards see, a very thoughtful principle of selection which led to the combination of precisely these two lessons.

Isa 19:24-25 Thus is the way prepared for the highest point of all, which the prophet foretells in Isa 19:24, Isa 19:25 : “In that day will Israel be the third part to Egypt and Asshur, a blessing in the midst of the earth, since Jehovah of hosts blesseth them thus: Blessed be thou, my people Egypt; and thou Asshur, the work of my hands; and thou Israel, mine inheritance. ” Israel is added to the covenant between Egypt and Asshur, so that it becomes a tripartite covenant in which Israel forms the “third part” ( sheilshiyyâh , tertia pars , like ‛ası̄ryyâh , decima pars , in Isa 6:13).

Israel has now reached the great end of its calling - to be a blessing in “the midst of the earth” ( b'kereb hâ'âretz , in the whole circuit of the earth), all nations being here represented by Egypt and Assyria. Hitherto it had been only to the disadvantage of Israel to be situated between Egypt and Assyria. The history of the Ephraimitish kingdom, as well as that of Judah, clearly proves this.

If Israel relied upon Egypt, it deceived itself, and was deceived; and if it relied on Assyria, it only became the slave of Assyria, and had Egypt for a foe. Thus Israel was in a most painful vise between the two great powers of the earth, the western and the eastern powers. But how will all this be altered now! Egypt and Assyria become one in Jehovah, and Israel the third in the covenant.

Israel is lo longer the only nation of God, the creation of God, the heir of God; but all this applies to Egypt and Assyria now, as well as to Israel. To give full expression to this, Israel’s three titles of honour are mixed together, and each of the three nations receives one of the choice names - nachali , “my inheritance,” being reserved for Israel, as pointing back to its earliest history.

This essential equalization of the heathen nations and Israel is no degradation to the latter. For although from this time forward there is to be no essential difference between the nations in their relation to God, it is still the God of Israel who obtains this universal recognition, and the nation of Israel that has become, according to the promise, the medium of blessing to the world.

Thus has the second half of the prophecy ascended step by step from salvation to salvation, as the first descended step by step from judgment to judgment. The culminating point in Isa 19:25 answers to the lowest point in Isa 19:15. Every step in the ascending half is indicated by the expression “in that day. ” Six times do we find this sign-post to the future within the limits of Isa 19:16-25.

This expression is almost as characteristic of Isaiah as the corresponding expression, “Behold, the days come” ( hinneh yâm bâ'im ), is of Jeremiah (compare, for example, Isa 7:18-25). And it is more particularly in the promising or Messianic portions of the prophecy that it is so favourite an introduction (Isa 11:10-11; Isa 12:1; compare Zech). Nevertheless, the genuineness of Isa 19:16-25 has recently been called in question, more especially by Hitzig.

Sometimes this passage has not been found fanatical enough to have emanated from Isaiah, i. e. , too free from hatred towards the heathen; whereas, on the other hand, Knobel adduces evidence that the prophet was no fanatic at all. Sometimes it is too fanatical; in reply to which we observe, that there never was a prophet of God in the world who did not appear to a “sound human understanding” to be beside himself, since, even assuming that this human understanding be sound, it is only within the four sides of its own peculiar province that it is so.

Again, in Isa 19:18, Isa 19:19, a prophecy has been discovered which is too special to be Isaiah’s, in opposition to which Knobel proves that it is not so special as is supposed. But it is quite special enough; and this can never astonish any one who can discern in the prophecy a revelation of the future communicated by God, whereas in itself it neither proves nor disproves the authorship of Isaiah.

So far as the other arguments adduced against the genuineness are concerned, they have been answered exhaustively by Caspari, in a paper which he contributed on the subject to the Lutherische Zeitschrift , 1841, 3. Hävernick, in his Introduction , has not been able to do anything better than appropriate the arguments adduced by Caspari. And we will not repeat for a third time what has been said twice already.

The two halves of the prophecy are like the two wings of a bird. And it is only through its second half that the prophecy becomes the significant centre of the Ethiopic and Egyptian trilogy. For chapter 19 predicts the saving effect that will be produced upon Egypt by the destruction of Assyria. And Isa 19:23. announces what will become of Assyria. Assyria will also pass through judgment to salvation.

This eschatological conclusion to chapter 19, in which Egypt and Assyria are raised above themselves into representatives of the two halves of the heathen world, is the golden clasp which connects chapters 19 and Isa 20:1-6. We now turn to this third portion of the trilogy, which bears the same relation to chapter 19 as Isa 16:13-14 to Isaiah 15-16:12. In passing to our exposition of the book, the first thing which strikes us is its traditional title - Yeshaiah (Isaiah).

In the book itself, and throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, the prophet is called Yeshayahu ; and the shorter form is found in the latest books as the name of other persons. It was a common thing in the very earliest times for the shorter forms of such names to be used interchangeably with the longer; but in later times the shorter was the only form employed, and for this reason it was the one adopted in the traditional title.

The name is a compound one, and signifies “Jehovah’s salvation. ” The prophet was conscious that it was not merely by accident that he bore this name; for ישׁע (he shall save) and ישׁוּעה (salvation) are among his favourite words. It may be said, in fact, that he lived and moved altogether in the coming salvation, which was to proceed from Jehovah, and would be realized hereafter, when Jehovah should come at last to His people as He had never come before.

This salvation was the goal of the sacred history ( Heilsgeschichte , literally, history of salvation); and Jehovah was the peculiar name of God in relation to that history. It denotes “the existing one,” not however “the always existing,” i. e. , eternal, as Bunsen and the Jewish translators render it, but “existing evermore,” i. e. , filling all history, and displaying His glory therein in grace and truth.

The ultimate goal of this historical process, in which God was ever ruling as the absolutely free One, according to His own self-assertion in Exo 3:14, was true and essential salvation , proceeding outwards from Israel, and eventually embracing all mankind. In the name of the prophet the tetragrammaton יהוה is contracted into יהו (יה) by the dropping of the second ה.

We may easily see from this contraction that the name of God was pronounced with an a sound, so that it was either called Yahveh , or rather Yahaveh , or else Yahvâh , or rather Yahavâh . According to Theodoret, it was pronounced ̓Ιαβε ( Yahaveh ) by the Samaritans; and it is written in the same way in the list of the names of the Deity given in Epiphanius. That the ah sound was also a customary pronunciation, may not only be gathered from such names as Jimnah, Jimrah, Jishvah, Jishpah (compare Jithlah, the name of a place), but is also expressly attested by the ancient variations, Jao , Jeuo , Jo (Jer 23:6, lxx), on the one hand, and on the other hand by the mode of spelling adopted by Origen ( Jaoia ) and Theodoret ( Aia , not only in quaest , in Ex .

§15, but also in Fab. haeret . “ Aia signifies the existing one; it was pronounced thus by Hebrews, but the Samaritans call it Jabai, overlooking the force of the word”). The dull-sounding long a could be expressed by omega quite as well as by alpha . Isidor follows these and similar testimonies, and says ( Orig . vii. 7), “The tetragrammaton consisted of ia written twice ( iaia ), and with this reduplication it constituted the unutterable and glorious name of God.

” The Arabic form adopted by the Samaritans leaves it uncertain whether it is to be pronounced Yahve or Yahva . They wrote to Job Ludolf (in the Epistola Samaritana Sichemitarum tertia , published by Bruns, 1781), in opposition to the statement of Theodoret, that they pronounced the last syllable with damma ; that is to say, they pronounced the name Yahavoh ( Yahvoh ), which was the form in which it was written in the last century by Velthusen, and also by Muffi in his Disegno di lezioni e di ricerche sulla lingua Ebraica (Pavia, 1792).

The pronunciation Jehovah ( Yehovah ) arose out of a combination of the Keri and the chethib , and has only become current since the time of the Reformation. Genebrard denounces it in his Commentary upon the Psalms with the utmost vehemence, in opposition to Beza, as an intolerable innovation. “Ungodly violators of what is most ancient,” he says, “profaning and transforming the unutterable name of God, would read Jova or Jehova - a new, barbarous, fictitious, and irreligious word, that savours strongly of the Jove of the heathen.

” Nevertheless his Jehova ( Jova ) forced its way into general adoption, and we shall therefore retain it, notwithstanding the fact that the o sound is decidedly wrong. To return, then: the prophet’s name signifies “Jehovah’s salvation. ” In the Septuagint it is always written ̔Ησαΐ̀ας, with a strong aspirate; in the Vulgate it is written Isaias , and sometimes Esaias .

In turning from the outward to the inward title, which is contained in the book itself, there are two things to be observed at the outset: (1.) The division of the vv. indicated by soph pasuk is an arrangement for which the way was prepared as early as the time of the Talmud, and which was firmly established in the Masoretic schools; and consequently it reaches as far back as the extreme limits of the middle ages - differing in this respect from the division of vv.

in the New Testament. The arrangement of the chapters, however, with the indications of the separate sections of the prophetic collection, is of no worth to us, simply because it is not older than the thirteenth century. According to some authorities, it originated with Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury († 1227); whilst others attribute it to Cardinal Hugo of St.

Caro († 1262). It is only since the fifteenth century that it has been actually adopted in the text. (2.) The small ring or star at the commencement points to the footnote, which affirms that Isaiah 1:1-28 (where we find the same sign again) was the haphtarah , or concluding pericope , taken from the prophets, which was read on the same Sabbath as the parashah from the Pentateuch, in Deu 1:1.

It was, as we shall afterwards see, a very thoughtful principle of selection which led to the combination of precisely these two lessons.

Isa 20:1-2 This section, commencing in the form of historic prose, introduces itself thus: “In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, Sargon the king of Asshur having sent him ( and he made war against Ashdod, and captured it ) : at that time Jehovah spake through Yeshayahu the son of Amoz as follows,” i. e. , He communicated the following revelation through the medium of Isaiah ( b'yad , as in Isa 37:24; Jer 37:2, and many other passages).

The revelation itself was attached to a symbolical act. B'yad (lit. “by the hand of”) refers to what was about to be made known through the prophet by means of the command that was given him; in other words, to Isa 20:3, and indirectly to Isa 20:2 . Tartan (probably the same man) is met with in 2Ki 18:17 as the chief captain of Sennacherib. No Assyrian king of the name of Sargon is mentioned anywhere else in the Old Testament; but it may now be accepted as an established result of the researches which have been made, that Sargon was the successor of Shalmanassar, and that Shalmaneser (Shalman, Hos 10:14), Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon, are the names of the four Assyrian kings who were mixed up with the closing history of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

It was Longperrier who was the first to establish the identity of the monarch who built the palaces at Khorsabad, which form the north-eastern corner of ancient Nineveh, with the Sargon of the Bible. We are now acquainted with a considerable number of brick, harem, votive-table, and other inscriptions which bear the name of this king, and contain all kinds of testimony concerning himself.

It was he, not Shalmanassar, who took Samaria after a three years’ siege; and in the annalistic inscription he boasts of having conquered the city, and removed the house of Omri to Assyria. Oppert is right in calling attention to the fact, that in 2Ki 18:10 the conquest is not attributed to Shalmanassar himself, but to the army. Shalmanassar died in front of Samaria; and Sargon not only put himself at the head of the army, but seized upon the throne, in which he succeeded in establishing himself, after a contest of several years’ duration with the legitimate heirs and their party.

He was therefore a usurper. Whether his name as it appears on the inscriptions is Sar-kin or not, and whether it signifies the king de facto as distinguished from the king de jure, we will not attempt to determine now. This Sargon, the founder of a new Assyrian dynasty, who reigned from 721-702 (according to Oppert), and for whom there is at all events plenty of room between 721-20 and the commencement of Sennacherib’s reign, first of all blockaded Tyre for five years after the fall of Samaria, or rather brought to an end the siege of Tyre which had been begun by Shalmanassar (Jos.

Ant. ix. 14, 2), though whether it was to a successful end or not is quite uncertain. He then pursued with all the greater energy his plan for following up the conquest of Samaria with the subjugation of Egypt, which was constantly threatening the possessions of Assyria in western Asia, either by instigation or support. The attack upon Ashdod was simply a means to this end.

As the Philistines were led to join Egypt, not only by their situation, but probably by kinship of tribe as well, the conquest of Ashdod - a fortress so strong, that, according to Herodotus (ii. 157), Psammetichus besieged it for twenty-nine years - was an indispensable preliminary to the expedition against Egypt. When Alexander the Great marched against Egypt, he had to do the same with Gaza.

How long Tartan required is not to be gathered from Isa 20:1. But if he conquered it as quickly as Alexander conquered Gaza - viz. in five months - it is impossible to understand why the following prophecy should defer for three years the subjugation of Ethiopia and Egypt. The words, “and fought against Ashdod, and took it,” must therefore be taken as anticipatory and parenthetical.

It was not after the conquest of Ashdod, but in the year in which the siege commenced, that Isaiah received the following admonition: “Go and loosen the smock-frock from off thy loins, and take off thy shoes from thy feet. And he did so, went stripped and barefooted. ” We see from this that Isaiah was clothed in the same manner as Elijah, who wore a fur coat (2Ki 1:8, cf.

, Zec 13:4; Heb 11:37), and John the Baptist, who had a garment of camel hair and a leather girdle round it (Mat 3:4); for sak is a coarse linen or hairy overcoat of a dark colour (Rev 6:12, cf. , Isa 50:3), such as was worn by mourners, either next to the skin ( ‛al - habbâsâr , 1Ki 21:27; 2Ki 6:30; Job 16:15) or over the tunic, in either case being fastened by a girdle on account of its want of shape, for which reason the verb châgar is the word commonly used to signify the putting on of such a garment, instead of lâbash .

The use of the word ârōm does not prove that the former was the case in this instance (see, on the contrary, 2Sa 6:20, compared with 2Sa 6:14 and Joh 21:7). With the great importance attached to the clothing in the East, where the feelings upon this point are peculiarly sensitive and modest, a person was looked upon as stripped and naked if he had only taken off his upper garment.

What Isaiah was directed to do, therefore, was simply opposed to common custom, and not to moral decency. He was to lay aside the dress of a mourner and preacher of repentance, and to have nothing on but his tunic ( cetoneth ); and in this, as well as barefooted, he was to show himself in public. This was the costume of a man who had been robbed and disgraced, or else of a beggar or prisoner of war.

The word cēn (so) is followed by the inf. abs. , which develops the meaning, as in Isa 5:5; Isa 58:6-7.

Isa 20:1-2 This section, commencing in the form of historic prose, introduces itself thus: “In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, Sargon the king of Asshur having sent him ( and he made war against Ashdod, and captured it ) : at that time Jehovah spake through Yeshayahu the son of Amoz as follows,” i. e. , He communicated the following revelation through the medium of Isaiah ( b'yad , as in Isa 37:24; Jer 37:2, and many other passages).

The revelation itself was attached to a symbolical act. B'yad (lit. “by the hand of”) refers to what was about to be made known through the prophet by means of the command that was given him; in other words, to Isa 20:3, and indirectly to Isa 20:2 . Tartan (probably the same man) is met with in 2Ki 18:17 as the chief captain of Sennacherib. No Assyrian king of the name of Sargon is mentioned anywhere else in the Old Testament; but it may now be accepted as an established result of the researches which have been made, that Sargon was the successor of Shalmanassar, and that Shalmaneser (Shalman, Hos 10:14), Sargon, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon, are the names of the four Assyrian kings who were mixed up with the closing history of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

It was Longperrier who was the first to establish the identity of the monarch who built the palaces at Khorsabad, which form the north-eastern corner of ancient Nineveh, with the Sargon of the Bible. We are now acquainted with a considerable number of brick, harem, votive-table, and other inscriptions which bear the name of this king, and contain all kinds of testimony concerning himself.

It was he, not Shalmanassar, who took Samaria after a three years’ siege; and in the annalistic inscription he boasts of having conquered the city, and removed the house of Omri to Assyria. Oppert is right in calling attention to the fact, that in 2Ki 18:10 the conquest is not attributed to Shalmanassar himself, but to the army. Shalmanassar died in front of Samaria; and Sargon not only put himself at the head of the army, but seized upon the throne, in which he succeeded in establishing himself, after a contest of several years’ duration with the legitimate heirs and their party.

He was therefore a usurper. Whether his name as it appears on the inscriptions is Sar-kin or not, and whether it signifies the king de facto as distinguished from the king de jure, we will not attempt to determine now. This Sargon, the founder of a new Assyrian dynasty, who reigned from 721-702 (according to Oppert), and for whom there is at all events plenty of room between 721-20 and the commencement of Sennacherib’s reign, first of all blockaded Tyre for five years after the fall of Samaria, or rather brought to an end the siege of Tyre which had been begun by Shalmanassar (Jos.

Ant. ix. 14, 2), though whether it was to a successful end or not is quite uncertain. He then pursued with all the greater energy his plan for following up the conquest of Samaria with the subjugation of Egypt, which was constantly threatening the possessions of Assyria in western Asia, either by instigation or support. The attack upon Ashdod was simply a means to this end.

As the Philistines were led to join Egypt, not only by their situation, but probably by kinship of tribe as well, the conquest of Ashdod - a fortress so strong, that, according to Herodotus (ii. 157), Psammetichus besieged it for twenty-nine years - was an indispensable preliminary to the expedition against Egypt. When Alexander the Great marched against Egypt, he had to do the same with Gaza.

How long Tartan required is not to be gathered from Isa 20:1. But if he conquered it as quickly as Alexander conquered Gaza - viz. in five months - it is impossible to understand why the following prophecy should defer for three years the subjugation of Ethiopia and Egypt. The words, “and fought against Ashdod, and took it,” must therefore be taken as anticipatory and parenthetical.

It was not after the conquest of Ashdod, but in the year in which the siege commenced, that Isaiah received the following admonition: “Go and loosen the smock-frock from off thy loins, and take off thy shoes from thy feet. And he did so, went stripped and barefooted. ” We see from this that Isaiah was clothed in the same manner as Elijah, who wore a fur coat (2Ki 1:8, cf.

, Zec 13:4; Heb 11:37), and John the Baptist, who had a garment of camel hair and a leather girdle round it (Mat 3:4); for sak is a coarse linen or hairy overcoat of a dark colour (Rev 6:12, cf. , Isa 50:3), such as was worn by mourners, either next to the skin ( ‛al - habbâsâr , 1Ki 21:27; 2Ki 6:30; Job 16:15) or over the tunic, in either case being fastened by a girdle on account of its want of shape, for which reason the verb châgar is the word commonly used to signify the putting on of such a garment, instead of lâbash .

The use of the word ârōm does not prove that the former was the case in this instance (see, on the contrary, 2Sa 6:20, compared with 2Sa 6:14 and Joh 21:7). With the great importance attached to the clothing in the East, where the feelings upon this point are peculiarly sensitive and modest, a person was looked upon as stripped and naked if he had only taken off his upper garment.

What Isaiah was directed to do, therefore, was simply opposed to common custom, and not to moral decency. He was to lay aside the dress of a mourner and preacher of repentance, and to have nothing on but his tunic ( cetoneth ); and in this, as well as barefooted, he was to show himself in public. This was the costume of a man who had been robbed and disgraced, or else of a beggar or prisoner of war.

The word cēn (so) is followed by the inf. abs. , which develops the meaning, as in Isa 5:5; Isa 58:6-7.

Isa 20:3-4 It is not till Isaiah has carried out the divine instructions, that he learns the reason for this command to strip himself, and the length of time that he is to continue so stripped. “And Jehovah said, As my servant Yesha'yahu goeth naked and barefooted, a sign and type for three years long over Egypt and over Ethiopia, so will the king of Asshur carry away the prisoners of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, children and old men, naked and barefooted, and with their seat uncovered - a shame to Egypt.

” The expression “as he goeth” ( ca'asher hâlac ) stands here at the commencement of the symbolical action, but it is introduced as if with a retrospective glance at its duration for three years, unless indeed the preterite hâlac stands here, as it frequently does, to express what has already commenced, and is still continuing and customary (compare, for example, Job 1:4 and Psa 1:1). The strange and unseemly dress of the prophet, whenever he appeared in his official capacity for three whole years, was a prediction of the fall of the Egypto-Ethiopian kingdom, which was to take place at the end of these three years.

Egypt and Ethiopia are as closely connected here as Israel and Judah in Isa 11:12. They were at that time one kingdom, so that the shame of Egypt was the shame of Ethiopia also. ‛Ervâh is a shameful nakedness, and ‛ervath Mitzrayim is in apposition to all that precedes it in Isa 20:4. Shēth is the seat or hinder part, as in 2Sa 10:4, from shâthâh , to set or seat; it is a substantive form, like בּן, עץ, רע, שׁם, with the third radical letter dropt.

Chashūphay has the same ay as the words in Isa 19:9; Jdg 5:15; Jer 22:14, which can hardly be regarded as constructive forms, as Ewald, Knobel, and Gesenius suppose (although ־י of the construct has arisen from ־י), but rather as a singular form with a collective signification. The emendations suggested, viz. , chasūphē by Olshausen, and chasūphı̄ with a connecting i by Meier, are quite unnecessary.

Isa 20:3-4 It is not till Isaiah has carried out the divine instructions, that he learns the reason for this command to strip himself, and the length of time that he is to continue so stripped. “And Jehovah said, As my servant Yesha'yahu goeth naked and barefooted, a sign and type for three years long over Egypt and over Ethiopia, so will the king of Asshur carry away the prisoners of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, children and old men, naked and barefooted, and with their seat uncovered - a shame to Egypt.

” The expression “as he goeth” ( ca'asher hâlac ) stands here at the commencement of the symbolical action, but it is introduced as if with a retrospective glance at its duration for three years, unless indeed the preterite hâlac stands here, as it frequently does, to express what has already commenced, and is still continuing and customary (compare, for example, Job 1:4 and Psa 1:1). The strange and unseemly dress of the prophet, whenever he appeared in his official capacity for three whole years, was a prediction of the fall of the Egypto-Ethiopian kingdom, which was to take place at the end of these three years.

Egypt and Ethiopia are as closely connected here as Israel and Judah in Isa 11:12. They were at that time one kingdom, so that the shame of Egypt was the shame of Ethiopia also. ‛Ervâh is a shameful nakedness, and ‛ervath Mitzrayim is in apposition to all that precedes it in Isa 20:4. Shēth is the seat or hinder part, as in 2Sa 10:4, from shâthâh , to set or seat; it is a substantive form, like בּן, עץ, רע, שׁם, with the third radical letter dropt.

Chashūphay has the same ay as the words in Isa 19:9; Jdg 5:15; Jer 22:14, which can hardly be regarded as constructive forms, as Ewald, Knobel, and Gesenius suppose (although ־י of the construct has arisen from ־י), but rather as a singular form with a collective signification. The emendations suggested, viz. , chasūphē by Olshausen, and chasūphı̄ with a connecting i by Meier, are quite unnecessary.