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14:29-32 "Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times. What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it."

 

In this period Judah's relations with the Philistines had swung from one extreme to another. In Uzziah's reign that land had been completely absorbed into Judah's new empire (2 Chr.26:6,7). Then in Ahaz's reign of weakness the tables were turned very drastically, and Philistia's independence even took over an appreciable piece of Jewish territory (28:18), so that Ahaz — poor fool! — was driven to appeal for Assyrian help, and thenceforward found himself an Assyrian vassal (29:21).

 

It is difficult to identify with confidence the powers referred to here as the rod-become-serpent (as in Ex. 7:10), and the cockatrice, and the fiery flying serpent. Do these refer to a re-assertion of Jewish authority over Philistia? Or to a sequence of Assyrian waves of invasion down the coastal plain? In view of the undoubted Assyrian ambitions to overrun Egypt (see ch.20), the latter reading is more likely. In that case, if the broken rod (v.29) is Sennacherib repulsed from Jerusalem (an event yet 14 years in the future), then Isaiah is warning the Philistines to prepare for two more generations of devastation — by Esarhaddon and Asshur-bani-pal. Yet another possibility is reference to Tiglath-pileser, Sargon II (20:1), and Sennacherib.

 

There are a surprising number of verbal coincidences (in Hebrew) between these few verses and ch. 11:1-8 about the root of Jesse who defends the poor and gets rid of the cockatrice. It is appropriate to the contrast between the Assyrian aggressor and righteous king Hezekiah.

 

Thus whereas God's faithful — "the firstborn of the poor" (Num. 3:13) and the "needy" — will come through safely (thanks to their righteous king), the "root" and "remnant" of the Philistines will suffer grievously. Because of the "smoke from the north" (the dust raised by the invading army?), Philistia will "melt away" (RV) and the great city of Ashdod (20:1) will suffer hardship. The army coming against it will be irresistible: "no straggler in his ranks" (RVm; cp. Jl. 2:7,8 — the same invasion over­running Judaea).

 

And it will happen "in his appointed times". This mysterious phrase is more specific than appears on the surface, for this Hebrew word always refers to feasts of the Lord. It was at Passover that Sennacherib's army was destroyed at Jerusalem (3029; 31:5), at a time when his other army was besieging Lachish and Libnah 37:8) and wrecking the Philistine plain (Am. 1:6-8).

 

The only prophetic comfort offered to these war-torn Philistines was an exhorta­tion to recognize that God's holy city was, in this era, inviolate (29:7; 31:5; 33:20; Ps 87). Let these Philistines recognize that as "the poor of God's people" put their trust in Him (Zeph. 3:12), so they should also do the same. Apart from this, no hope! Not for any of their five cities.

 

According to all the intimations encountered so far in this part of Isaiah, there should also be a Last Day fulfilment of this burden of Philistia in connection with the dramatic boil-up of events preceding Messiah's coming. But one has to confess that it is not easy to get a clear interpretative picture.

 

Certain details are fairly dependable. There will be invasion from the north, and it will be at Passover time. But which identification is possible of the serpent brood Isaiah specifies? The modern counterpart to the ancient Philistine territory is what is now called the Gaza strip, with a burgeoning Arab population, all of them, at the time of writing, on the boil with anti-Jewish hatred.

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Chapter 15

 

15:1-5 "The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off. In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly. And Heshbon shall cry, Elealeh: their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him. My heart shall cry for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping they go up (R.V.); for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction."

 

The burden of Moab occupies two chapters. A quick review of the nation's history is perhaps desirable.

 

Moab and Ammon were peoples sprung from the sons of Lot's incestuous daughters (Gen. 19:37). They joined in the early efforts to crush David's growing power, and were themselves crushed and added to his fast-growing empire (2 Sam. 8:2; Ps. 60:8). Solomon kept Moab friendly, but in spite of his great wisdom he paid a horrible price by adding a Moabite princess to his harem and by tolerating a Chemosh temple on the Mount of Olives looking towards Moab (1 Kgs. 11:7).

 

Isaiah4HAW.jpg

 

 

After the northern secession Israel gave Moab hard treatment, especially in the reign of Omri. But the weakness of Ahab gave Mesha, an extremely able Moabite king and sheep-master, the opportunity to assert independence. According to the Moabite Stone (broken up by superstitious Arabs, so that more than a third of it was lost), Mesha was a competent progressive ruler. But independence was lost again when Jeroboam II overran the country. Tribute was probably paid in the form of thousands of sheep and lambs.

 

When the growing power of Assyria weakened Israel's dominance, Moab gained its independence again, and about this time, or maybe earlier, it assimilated practically the whole of the territory of Reuben. Most of the cities assigned to Reuben in Joshua 13:21 crop up later (in Is. 15,16; Jer. 48, and the Mesha Stone) as Moabite possessions.

 

Then the Assyrians — Tiglath-pileser III, Shalmanezer V (probably), and Sennacherib (certainly) — took toll of Moab's prosperity. The last two verses of ch. 16 are to be read as foretelling disaster in the time of Sennacherib. That passage asserts the fulfilment of the body of these two chapters at that time.

 

But 16:13 (RV): "This is the word which the Lord spake concerning Moab in time past" intimates that ch. 15, 16 are not original prophecies by Isaiah himself. Apparently all he has done is to reproduce the words from some older "burden", simply adding the grim assurance that within three years all this will be accomplished (16:14).

 

It is rather remarkable that just as David's conquests began with, first, the Philistines, and then the Moabites, so also Isaiah's burden against Philistia is follow­ed by this against Moab — and so also Jeremiah 47,48. The very dramatic opening should probably read (as in Cambridge Bible): "Yea, in a night is Ar laid waste — Moab undone! Yea, in a night is Kir laid waste — Moab undone!"

 

The accompanying map shows the probable location of most of the places mentioned. The element of uncertainty makes little difference to the general mean­ing of the prophecy.

 

Kir is probably the modern Kerak, a fortress of outstanding strength.

 

Bajith is probably 'the House', i.e. the temple of Chemosh; and 'high places' is most likely an intensive plural describing Dibon as the holy place. (Josh. 13:17: high places of Baal). Mesha tells how he re-built the high place of Chemosh.

 

Nebo is the mountain where Moses died, but the city was some miles east of it.

 

But it is noteworthy that in verse 5 names and phrases all seem to focus on reminiscences of the story of Lot: "her fugitives flee to Zoar" (at the southern end of the Dead Sea); there is a cry of destruction"; "an heifer of three years old" is literally: "the third heifer" — a symbolic allusion to the fate of Lot's wife (v.8 mentions Eglaim and 'the two heifers', his daughters); Horonaim, near Zoar, means "two caves" (Gen. 19:30); and just possibly Luhith may have a hidden allusion to that last disgraceful episode told about Lot.

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15:6-9 "For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing. Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows. For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beer-elim. For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land."

 

There is little certainty about the identification of the places mentioned here.

 

The waters of Nimrim (see map) are said to be fed by seven springs, and therefore a specially lush area important for Moab's main "industry" — sheep-rearing. The withering of the grass is another symbolic reference to the desolation of Moab's "abundance" (v.7).

 

Beer-elim (the well of the rulers) may be the very place on Moab's eastern or northern border where the princes of Israel made a formal ceremony of digging a well (Num. 21:16-18), thus signifying the beginning of their possession of their inheritance.

 

No place called Dimon is traceable. But it has been speculated that this is a deliberate perversion of Dibon, so as to suggest the Hebrew word for "blood".

 

The abundance carried away to "the brook of the willows" is probably a parallel to the willows of the waters of Babylon (Ps. 137:2) where Sennacherib transplanted many of his captives. And similarly the "lions" (v.9) are a figure of the Assyrians, for winged lions figure prominently in their bas-reliefs.

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Chapter 16

 

16:1-6 "Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Amon. Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land. And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness."

 

This paragraph has about it a distinct change of tone (except perhaps for v.2). Its details strongly suggest that it is Isaiah's own insertion in the older prophecy (v. 13 RV) which he has quoted in ch. 15 and in the rest of this chapter.

 

But since v.2 is so like ch. 15, it has been suggested that this really belongs at the end of ch.15. Certainly "the daughters of Moab" pictured in flight might well be a carry over of the allusions to Lot and his family (15:5).

 

Verse 1 reads as an exhortation to Moab to resume the payment of tribute to God's people. "The lamb" is a collective noun for the thousands of animals paid in tribute. But now the allegiance is to be expressed not to the Northern Kingdom, as formerly (2 Kgs. 3:4), but to the temple of Jehovah. The mention of Sela (in Edom) and the wilderness suggests that because of invasion from the north the tribute is to be sent via the southern circuit of the Dead Sea. "The ruler of the Land" who received this subjection is, of course, Hezekiah who after the destruction of Sennacherib's army (v.4) stood in a position of great prestige among the surroun­ding nations.

 

Remarkably, the Hebrew of verse 4 can be read in two directly opposite ways — either, as AV: "Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab" (a picture of Jewish fugitives finding refuge east of Jordan); or, as most modern versions: "Let the out­casts of Moab dwell with thee" (i.e. with the daughter of Zion; v.1). This latter reading (with strong support of LXX and other versions) has more inherent sense and undoubtedly fits the context far better, for ch. 15,16 are all about Moab being overrun by the enemy, all (that is) except v.5 which speaks of a son of David secure on his throne from invaders who are "consumed out of the Land." So Moab is urged to lean on Hezekiah of Jerusalem, just as Lot had to depend for rescue on Abraham, who then brought the spoils of war to the sanctuary of the Lord on Mount Moriah.

 

As the godly king in Zion was to be "as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land" (32:2), so also for wretched Moab, if only these stricken people would have the good sense to recognize where true safety lay — "a shadow in the midst of noonday, hiding the outcasts" (v.3). Compare also 14:32: "The Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it."

"The oppressors" are clearly the irresistible Assyrians. At this point, LXX follows a slightly different text, to give this reading: "The prince is perished that trampled the Land" — a specific prophecy of what was to happen to Sennacherib as well as to his army (37:36-38).

 

Verse 5 is quite superb, first as an assurance of the saving power of godly Hezekiah — note the words "mercy...truth...judgment...righteousness" — with the strong implication that, sharing the faith of this wonderful man, these distressed Moabites can share also the safety and recovery which comes through him.

 

The reference to "the tabernacle of David" is to be taken in a double sense, as meaning not only the sanctuary in Zion but also the Man of God in Zion. In Amos 9:11 the "raising up of the tabernacle of David that is fallen" is most probably a figurative allusion to the restoration of stricken Hezekiah.

 

But it would be foolish to stop here, focussing entirely on the undoubted relevance of this prophecy to Isaiah's own day. The rabbis fastened on the allusion to "a throne established in mercy and in truth" (i.e. fulfilling the promises to the fathers) on "the mount of the daughter of Zion" and so they interpreted "Send ye the lamb" as meaning: "They shall bring tribute to Israel's Messiah who shall have sway over those that are in the wilderness" (Targum).

 

Just as chapter 14 foretells how the great Northern Enemy of the last days will be brought to nought, so also chapters 15,16 prophesy a desolation of the state of Jordan unless there is a willingness to acknowledge the authority of the Lord's Messiah reigning on the throne established (2 Sam. 7:13) on Mount Zion.

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16:6-12 "We have heard of the pride of Moab: he is very proud; even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so. Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are stricken. For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah: the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness: her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea. Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, 0 Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen. And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh. And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail."

 

The appeal (see on v.4) to rely on the God of Israel and on His king in Zion is apparently rejected. So this next paragraph pictures the unrelieved agony of the people of Moab as judgment overtakes them for their overweening pride (as in 25:11 also), their unfriendliness towards Israel, and especially for the base character of their religion. How well "the haughtiness of Moab" comes out in the boasting of Mesha, on the Moabite Stone! But "his lies are not so" — there is to be a sharp contrast between false expectation and the true facts of experience.

 

"Moab will howl for Moab" — the survivors mourning for those who have been lost.

 

"The lords of the heathen" are the priests of the high places (cp. Num. 21:28). These flee now to Jazer on the edge of the wilderness or "go over the sea" (this must be the Dead Sea, if the reading is correct; but LXX more appropriately has "wilderness").

 

Nevertheless — because of the ancient link with Abraham? — there is deep sympathy for Moab in its predicament: "I will weep with the weeping of Jazer." The "bowels" i.e. compassion, of God, goes out to these fugitives (cp. 63:15). Or is it said in irony, when there is actually contempt for the futility of Moab's "weary" pleading on high places, prayers which cannot possibly prevail? What a contrast with the effectiveness of the intercessions of Hezekiah both for himself in his sickness and for his people facing the inroads of the Assyrians.

 

A remarkable feature of these two chapters is the close relationship that there is with Jeremiah 48, also about Moab. There seem to be two main possibilities: either Jeremiah is quoting from his copy of Isaiah, or else from the original prophecy (by some un-named prophet) which Isaiah has also used very copiously. It is undeniably true that Jeremiah refers quite extensively to Isaiah's prophecies, so this makes the first suggestion perfectly feasible. But on the other hand, there is so little direct quotation and so much variation of phrase in the parallel passages as to suggest the other possibility, or even that Jeremiah was quoting from memory, or making variations to suit the circumstances of his own time.

 

With ch.15:2-7 compare Jer. 48:37,34,35,36; and with 16:6-11 compare 48:29-33,36.

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16:13,14 "This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning Moab since that time. But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble."

 

"Spoken in time past" (RV) suggests that most of ch. 15,16 forms a prophecy spoken in earlier days by some prophet of the Lord (Jonah?). But now Isaiah declares very emphatically that, since apparently Moab refuses to lean on Judah's king, and Judah's God, the worst features of this judgment will be fulfilled, and little indeed will be left to Moab. More than this, Isaiah is specific that fulfilment will come within three years, "as the years of an hireling." But the years of a hireling are neither longer nor shorter than any other kind of year. However, two periods of three years of hired service fitted into the six between one sabbath year and the next. Now the sign given to Hezekiah (2 Kgs. 19:29) identifies the year of the siege by Sennacherib (701 B.C.) as a sabbath year. So the implication behind Isaiah's explicit phrasing is that these words were spoken in 704 B.C, and that before the sabbath year came, havoc and ruin would be taken by these Assyrians through the length and breadth of Moab — and not just Moab: "This is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations" (14:26).

 

When a boastful Assyrian voice was lifted up against the God of Israel, the reply from heaven was: "Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps" (37:26). That phrase: "ancient times" may imply that ch. 15,16 were first spoken long before the days of Sennacherib, and that these prophecies were known by the Assyrian king.

 

Since Isaiah has similar phrasing in 21:16 — "as the years of an hireling" — it follows that that prophecy was spoken two years after this one.

 

There is an interesting play on words in the expression: "the glory of Moab contemned (abased, brought low)," for this Hebrew word also means "roasted," as though alluding to the worst horrors of Moabite religion when they passed their children through the fire to Chemosh (2 Kgs. 3:27).

 

Since, undeniably, the prophecies about Sennacherib belong also to the last days and the inroads of another northern invader, it needs to be considered whether in that time of crisis there will not once again be an all-important sabbath year for the deliverance of Jerusalem, with its preceding year bringing devastation on Moab (Jordan).

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Chapter 17

 

17:1-3 "The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts."

 

The shape of this Burden of Damascus is really rather remarkable. In these three verses the fate of the city is closely coupled with that of Ephraim, the northern kingdom, and then the rest of the burden concentrates (probably) on Judah and its sensational deliverance from Sennacherib.

 

Earlier Isaiah had bidden Ahaz not fear "the two tails of these smoking firebrands," Syria and Israel (7:4,8). Now the day of God's action against them draws nearer. Just which Assyrian attack on Damascus is meant here is not clear. Certainly Tiglath-pileser III conquered it (2 Kgs. 16:9; Am. 1.3) in 732 B.C. It appears to have continued under Assyrian domination in the reigns of Shalmanezer V and Sargon II. It is a likely guess that when Sennacherib faced revolt from various subject states, Syria was one of them, and that this prophecy foretells the outcome of that king's punitive expedition "No eastern city has been so often overthrown and rebuilt as Damascus" (Vitringa).

 

Isaiah, always fond of playing with words, has a couple of typical examples here in the Hebrew text. They are such as cannot possibly be re-produced in English. The city becomes a heap. The cities of Aroer are for flocks which are not afraid. Since none of the three Aroers of the OT. (one in Moab, one in Ammon, and one in the Negeb) seems relevant to this passage, there is a temptation to follow LXX in leaving it out altogether, — "her cities for ever are forsaken." However there is some evidence of a place with a similar name near Damascus, but nothing is known about it. The name Aroer means "bare, stripped," and this meaning is surely alluded to in the picture (v.6) of both vine and olive bereft of fruit.

 

"The glory of Israel" is spoken of as already gone, or at least already prophetically doomed. "The fortress" may be Samaria which withstood a long siege by Shalmanezer and Sargon before being at last brought to ruin.

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17:4-6 "And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel."

 

"In that day" becomes, as elsewhere (e.g. 2:20; 3:7,18; 4:1,2), the lead in to a new paragraph of judgment (v.4,7,9,11). The reference to Ephraim and Israel (v.3) is picked up for repeated emphasis, Isaiah again indulging in some rather impressive juggling with words:

 

"Rephaim" is intended to recall "Ephraim," and the meaning of Ephraim is behind the phrase "a fruitful tree" (cp. Gen. 49:22; Hos. 13:15). "Ears" is shibbolim, suggesting shibboleth, the test applied to the men of Ephraim (Jd. 12:6) And the word "gathers" is almost the name Joseph. The word for "berries" occurs nowhere else, and to a Jewish ear would suggest "fugitives."

 

Three separate figures of speech follow each other here — a wasting disease (cp. 10:16), the harvesting of corn, and the gathering of olives. It is the harvestman Death who gathers so beautiful a crop. And why in the valley of Rephaim? — because that name means "the dead."

 

The mention of gleaning grapes, and a few olive berries on remote branches is in itself a prophecy of the meagre fruits of Hezekiah's appeal to the northern tribes to renew their celebration of Passover at Jerusalem (2 Chr. 30:10,11).

 

There should also be a fulfilment of this part of the prophecy concerning the last days, but it is difficult to be sure precisely how. Is there an indication of heavy slaughter amongst the Israelis in the north of the Land, and consequently only a few repentant people joining those whose godliness will achieve so much towards bringing the promised Messiah?

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17:7,8 "At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images."

 

It is a prophecy that in the coming days oppressive events will shatter belief in all forms of false worship. Instead, men will be led back to faith in Jehovah. These developments, both negative and positive, came about in Hezekiah's reign. The ferocity of Assyrian invasion shattered (for the time being, at any rate) belief in the plethora of false gods, fostered by a spineless, faithless Ahaz. And the full-blooded reformation led by devout Hezekiah and Isaiah's school of faithful prophets re­established the authority of Jehovah over His people.

 

"The Holy One of Israel" is once again a divine title steering the prophet's disciples back to his earlier vision of the Lord, high and lifted up, and the message imparted then of coming judgment and the survival of a faithful remnant (6:3,9-13).

 

The futile altars which had distracted attention from true worship — and especially the Assyrian altar obsequiously imported by Ahaz (2 Kgs. 16:10-12) — these were to encounter a shattering wave of righteous zeal and indignation (2 Kgs. 18:4; 2 Chr. 31:1). As "the work of men's hands" they were polluted from the first moment of their fashioning — so Moses' Law declared (Ex. 20:25).

 

The "groves" (a poor translation, this!) were actually phallic symbols associated with the sex-religion which in nearly every generation mesmerised the people of Israel (and still does). The Hebrew name asherah means literally 'the way to happiness' — and so says the 20th century with equal gusto.

 

The "images" were actually obelisks erected in connection with sun-worship. There is good evidence in Phoenician inscriptions for this conclusion. A cognate Hebrew word means "the heat of the sun." The "sun-dial" of Ahaz (2 Kgs. 20:11) must have been one of these, and presumably it was allowed to survive the idol-smashing rampage in Hezekiah's reign because of its association with the sign given to Hezekiah at the time of his sickness (and because of its practical usefulness?). That sign very appropriately demonstrated the superiority of the Glory of the Lord over any worship of a heavenly body, no matter how impressive. However that obelisk stood no chance in the next wave of idol-smashing in Josiah's reign (2 Kgs. 23:11,12).

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17:9 "In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an upper-most branch, which they left because of the children of Israel. and there shall be desolation."

 

As it stands this verse is not easy to make sense of. N.I.V. and sundry commentators treat these words as not belonging here (from some other part of Isaiah's prophecy?).

 

"The strong cities" are the "fenced cities" of Hezekiah (2 Kgs. 18:13; 19:25) which the Assyrians readily captured and destroyed, reducing them to desolation, as Isaiah's earlier prophecy had foretold (6:11).

 

The LXX reading, adopted by RVm, throws a ray of light on the meaning here: "his strong cities shall be as the forsaken places of the Amorites and the Hivites which were forsaken from before the children of Israel." Now all is clear. Those Canaanite tribes, worshippers of the false gods denounced here in verse 8, were for that main reason cast out of the Land, leaving their cities and villages to be taken over by Israel, led by Joshua. Now, for the same evil found in God's people, they are to suffer a like experience, the Assyrians being used as the scourge of God.

 

17:10,11 "Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow."

 

These verses are anything but easy to understand. There seems to be sustained allusion to the pagan sexual fertility cult which dominated so many of the religions adjacent to Israel. There is some evidence that the word "pleasant" — na'amon — was an alternative title of Adonis (Adonai!), who was also called Tammuz. This cult was evidently associated with rites which took place in specially cultivated gardens (1:29,30; 65:3; 66:17; 57:5), but little specific information is available. Perhaps it is as well that it is so!

 

The "strange slips" are vine shoots. And here the LXX reading, very different from AV, reads: "in the day wherein thou shalt obtain an inheritance, and as a man's father shalt thou obtain an inheritance for thy sons." Is there possibly here an allusion to the rape of Naboth's vineyard which Ahab wanted to dedicate to the evil Adonis religion just mentioned?

 

But the end of v.11 AV says that these beautiful gardens of false religion will be swept away "in a day of grief and desperate sorrow" — again, it is the Assyrian threat. The Hebrew word for "heap" always means "a heap of waters" — the Assyrian tide (as in 8:7,8); and this idea leads on readily enough to verses 12,13.

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17:12-14 "Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us."

 

The attack of the Assyrian invaders, causing complete terror (v.14), is scornfully rebuked. Their violence is to meet with a greater violence, so that in a few hours between evening and morning all threat of danger is gone.

 

The enemy is described as "many people" because of the copious recruitment of mercenaries which the Assyrians made use of from other conquered countries:

 

"the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel" (29:7); "assemble yourselves, all ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces" (8:9). Elam and Kir and the Medes are specifically mentioned (21:2; 22:6) and the vigorous judgments against Edom and Moab make it pretty certain that they too joined with enthusiasm in the onslaught on Judah (25:10; 34:6; 63:1).

 

The "rushing of mighty waters" is a vigorous figure taken from experience of a flash-flood in a wadi after a violent storm in the hills. The same word "rushing" describes "the noise of strangers" coming against the mountain of the Lord of hosts (25:5,6)

 

The rebuke of God — by His thunder? (Ps. 104:7) — comes first from His prophet and then by the violence of the judgment poured out. The power harnessed by God for the discipline of His people has decreed for it an even worse fate: "When the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks" (10:12). "When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shall be spoiled" (33:1).

 

"They — these mighty Assyrians! — shall flee far off." The wheat of the harvest was beaten out with a flail on a hill-top threshing floor (2 Chr. 3:1). Then, when the mixture of wheat and chaff was thrown up into the wind, the lightweight chaff was blown in violent eddies away from the heavier grain (Ps. 1:4; 35:5; Mt. 3:12).

 

This figure recurs more than once. "The multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust...as chaff that passeth away...Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder" (29:5,6).

 

Psalm 83, most emphatically a Hezekiah psalm, and not (as often asserted) dating from Jehoshaphat, is a remarkably close parallel prophecy. It presents a picture of God's people hard-pressed and with little hope of survival. They are beset by a great confederacy of enemies, all of them Arab peoples round about, including Damascus, Syria, with Asshur prominent among them. This prayer for help echoes Isaiah: "O my God, make them like a whirling thing, as stubble before the wind, {ruach, the Spirit)...pursue them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm" (Ps. 83:13,15) — "that men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth." "The Lord hath his way in the whirl­wind and in the storm" (Nah. 1:3) — the words were spoken against Sennacherib's Nineveh.

 

Isaiah's prophecy here could hardly be more specific. There is "trouble (terror) at eveningtide." Yet "before the morning he (the enemy) is not." This is precisely how judgment fell on the Assyrian host: "when men arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead — corpses!" (37:36).

 

There is a grim irony about that expression: "This is the portion of them that spoil us", for that word holek means 'this is their share of the plunder.' They have ravaged towns and cities, homes and farms; now they have this share of plunder as well — the stroke of the angel of the Lord.

 

Again it has to be emphasized that the real value of this prophecy is in its meaning for today.

 

Syrian Damascus, along with Edom and Moab, Egypt and Tyre and all the other Arab marauders, will combine with the great northern enemy to devastate and ravage Israel for its persistent faithless materialistic godlessness and worship of sex. And yet through the penitence of a faithful remnant there will come sudden Messianic deliverance. The destroying angel of the Lord still has much fell work to accomplish — and he has not forgotten how to achieve it overnight!

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Chapter 18

 

18:1,2 "Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!"

 

Babylon-Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Syria — and now through three chapters, the burden of Egypt. And still the most essential element in these prophecies against Gentile nations is their relation to the people of God. Apart from this, no Gentile nation is of any serious importance in the purposes of Heaven. It is friendship with or hostility to Israel which makes all the difference. Was not this almost the first assurance given to Abraham (Gen. 12:3)?

 

As background to this burden, there is a picture of an ambassage of friendship and alliance coming to Jerusalem from Tirhakah, the Ethiopian king of Egypt. Yet everything about succeeding prophecies suggests Egyptian undependability and deceit, and even hostility. Isaiah gives no encouragement at all to the repeated eager efforts of the faithless statesmen in Jerusalem to make a firm defensive alliance against the tide of Assyrian expansion. Joel is specially caustic in his deprecation of this pseudo-ally: "Egypt shall be a desolation...for the violence against the children of Judah, because they (the Egyptians) have shed innocent blood (of Jewish refugees) in their land" (3:19),

 

"The land shadowing with wings" is readily identified by the mention of its "vessels of bulrushes", more strictly, papyrus, the flags which still grow on the margin of the Nile. Of course their vessels were not made of papyrus, but they used sails of that material. And their treaties were paper promises.

 

"The rivers of Ethiopia" are the several branches of the Nile delta. The name Ethiopia is used with reference to the ruling Egyptian dynasty, for Tirhakah (37:9) and his predecessors were a Cushite family from the extreme south, hence "beyond the rivers of Ethiopia."

 

Dr. Thomas fastened on the eastern Cush, to the north-east of Mesopotamia, and so identified the rivers as the Tigris and Euphrates (Eur.2.556). But in Isaiah Cush is always southern Egypt.

 

The word for "shadowing" with wings is a strange one which might refer to the buzzing of the flying insects or the whirring of wings or even the reverberation of cymbals. In fact, it is almost the same as the local name for the tse-tse fly, and is perhaps chosen to suggest the hornet which Moses used as a symbol for the might of the Pharaohs (so Garstang in his "Joshua-Judges"). There is evidence, too, that the ancient symbol for Ethiopia was the sun's disc with a prominent pair of wings.

 

The Hebrew interjection "Woe!" is mostly turned by modern translators into the colourless "Ho!", summoning attention. Yet it can hardly be gainsaid that in most Old Testament occurrences "Woe" appears to be the essential idea. Chapters 19,20 suggest that this is probably the right flavour, preparing Egypt for ill news. Certainly it became an important element of Isaiah's witness to discourage his people from an Egyptian alliance.

 

But evidently at the time when this burden was communicated, Tirhakah was showing marked signs of friendliness, sending his ambassadors to Jerusalem by boat down the Nile (sometimes, because of its impressive size, called "the sea"; 19:5; Nah. 3:8), and possibly coasting along to Joppa, for this would be a much easier travel than by the coast road, "the way of the Philistines."

 

There is no need for the word "saying" (note the italics), although there are other examples of the same ellipsis. The passage makes good sense without it, when read as the prophet's cynical comment on the political mission of these ambassadors. Rather neatly LXX translates: "swift messengers" with a Greek word kouphoi meaning 'light, insubstantial, trivial.' And "ambassadors" become "paper letters" (LXX), as though suggesting paper promises, or even a paper tiger. Thus, gently, the prophet's later slurs against Egyptian undependability are anticipated (30:5,7; 31:3).

 

The nation to whom this deputation comes is, of course, God's own people facing fearful threat from Assyria.

 

"Scattered and peeled" probably, though not certainly, means "dragged away and plucked off (their Land), or (possibly) flayed" (50:6). It is a picture of people destined to face desperate hardship when the invader takes multitudes of them off into captivity in a far-off land. And accordingly the word for "nation" is goi, the normal Old Testament word for a Gentile race.

 

How appropriate when addressing Egypt to describe Israel as "a people terrible (s.w. Ex. 34:10) from their beginning." The tradition about Moses and the plagues probably still survived in the land of Ham. And in that Hebrew phrase there could even be an echo of "manna."

 

How appropriate, too, to refer to Israel as "the land the rivers have spoiled," for this last word recalls the last verse of ch. 17: "them that spoil us;" and the figure of Assyrian invasion as a mighty river bursting its banks is already familiar in Isaiah (8:7,8; 7:18).

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18:3 "All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye."

 

Egyptian ambassadors are intent on securing a secret agreement, but the prophet calls all the world to take notice of the mighty developments soon to centre on God's city in the mountains. This crisis will be like the lifting up of an ensign (5:26) and the blowing of a great trumpet (Jl. 2:15) bidding them all assemble at the Almighty's bidding. But not for war against the Assyrian Nazis. This summons calls them to peace and especially to a devout acknowledgement of the supremacy of the God of Israel (2 Chr. 32:23). It is also, as Ps. 81:3 (see context), a jubilee trumpet declaring freedom for God's people who have been dragged away into captivity.

 

18:4,5 "For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripen­ing in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches."

 

It is not for nothing that Lowth describes this ch.18 as "one of the most obscure prophecies in the whole of Isaiah." Another commentator goes further and calls it "the most difficult chapter in the Old Testament." So here and there conclusions have to be somewhat tentative.

 

The prophet makes sure that what he writes is received as undeniably a revelation from God: "The LORD said to me, I will take my rest." The words must mean either cessation of evident activity or holding back from activity until the time is more propitious; in this case, the latter, so the context indicates.

 

But there is assurance that God will go to work "in the heat of harvest." AV: "consider in my dwelling place" is somewhat vague; but with the smallest possible difference in the Hebrew reading (maqom for naqon), LXX has "security (or, safety) in my city" (that last word being a paraphrase). It is another of Isaiah's specific prognostications of the great Hezekiah-Sennacherib crisis.

 

"As clear heat upon herbs" and "like a cloud of dew" is an apparent contradiction which has the commentators somewhat mystified, judging by their tangle of words. "As the Light of mid-day heat" (LXX) is more accurate. There is now seen to be an allusion to the Glory of the Lord, the pillar of cloud and fire, which protected Israel coming out of Egypt (Ex. 14:20). The reference to "heat" is appropriate too, since it was with "devouring fire" that the angel of the Lord was to destroy the Assyrians (30:30).

 

Paul seems to interpret this passage in this way, using it in his vivid description of his own conversion: "About noon suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me" (Acts 22:6). He was like the Assyrian persecutor struck "dead" in the presence of the Glory of the Lord.

 

But this promised deliverance in Zion was to come only after God had bided His time, "taking His rest." Then, "for Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth" (62:1).

 

But before this — "afore the harvest" (17:11) — there must be a cutting-off of "the sprigs with the pruning hooks," that is, the plundering of Judah before ever Hezekiah's reformation had come to its fulness. Here the Hebrew word for "sprigs" seems to make deliberate allusion to "shadowing with wings" (v.1), thus supplying also a hint of the cutting-off of the proffered military aid from Egypt through the massive defeat inflicted by the Assyrians on Pharaoh at El-tekeh (Taylor Prism).

 

"He will take away, and cut down the branches" is a fairly clear anticipation of the considerable captivity which was inflicted on no less than 200,000 men of Israel, including members of the royal family (details which the same prism inscription confirms).

 

Not a few commentators choose to interpret this verse 5 differently: The reference to the bud and the flower and the grape and the sprigs is taken as a picture of the ripening purpose of the Assyrian king, set on empire-building in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Judah and even Egypt — with v.6 setting out the dramatic contrast of the complete destruction of his army outside Jerusalem. But there are two arguments against this: (a) the dramatic change in the figure of speech, which has to be assumed between v.5 and 6; (b) 17:6,9,11 uses the figure of the vine for God's judgment on Israel (see notes on ch. 17).

 

The last day fulfilment of these verses is deferred to the end of this chapter.

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18:6 "They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them."

 

By common consent, "they" are the Assyrian plunderers suddenly brought low in Judaea. The grim figure of vultures and wild beasts gorging themselves on mounds of carcases is ghoulish enough. But the details are impressive. The siege of Jerusalem took place at Passover (31:5; 26:20; 33:20; 29:1). Here is an in­dication that through the summer and into the winter the wild creatures would still be foraging for their food among the piles of the dead. 185,000 — no less! (37:36).

 

18:7 "In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion."

 

"That time" will be a time of misery and destruction, first for God's people, and then for their invaders. And now is described the final outcome — Israel constrained by the marvel of their unique deliverance to return with heart and soul to their God, and indeed being brought back to their Holy Land and Sanctuary by nations round about now recognizing it as incumbent on Jew and Gentile alike to give glory to the Lord of hosts. And this divine title is specially appropriate here because the deliverance comes about through angelic action: "The angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians" (37:36).

 

Once the Assyrian threat was done with, Hezekiah's partial reformation became a national regeneration (for a time, at any rate). Now in their king's extended reign of 15 years they came much more readily "to the place (maqom, holy place) of the name of the Lord." The thousands of captives taken off to Babylon (Senn. prism) and yet more thousands who had fled in terror to other lands — all of these were now given full encouragement and generous help for their return to the Land of their fathers (49:8ff; 60:6,7; 66:20). There was no nation within reach that was not eager to have friendship with the Jews and favour from their God.

 

These nations not only brought Hezekiah's people home, but they also brought lavish gifts to the temple in Jerusalem: "Many brought gifts unto the Lord, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from henceforth" (2 Chr. 32:23). Judging from other references Egypt, so useless as an ally, was now foremost in its assiduous cultivation of a Jewish alliance; and Merodach-baladan, away in Babylon, was not far behind.

 

From being plundered and poverty-stricken, God's Land climbed to an astonishing apex of prosperity. No longer "dragged away and plucked from" their homes, they became a people at ease and honoured far and wide.

 

And now it is highly important to observe how superbly prophetic of the Last Days this part of Egypt's burden is.

 

There is a picture of Egypt pretending friendship with Israel, but useless to help at the time when the northern threat paralyses everybody. But deliverance comes not from Egypt but from God's Messianic ensign raised in Zion. First, however, there seems to be reluctance on God's part to do anything for His people. The small signs of spiritual revival are apparently cut off short by the terror sweeping through the Land. But suddenly the power of the Lord of hosts is manifest, and the scene is transformed, first into one of carnage as the invading army is laid low, so that wild beasts and carrion birds are glutted with their prey (Ez. 38:20; 39:17; Rev. 19:17,21); then the sun of God's favour shines forth. Scattered Israelis come happily home, and nations who had hitherto been indifferent to their fate now esteem them the most desirable of friends. Best of all, the God of Israel is honoured with the best service which the nations can offer — those nations, that is, who have some capacity for recognizing God's Truth, and who acknowledge in the new King of Israel the one whose godliness alone can save the world.

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Chapter 19

 

19:1-4 "The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts."

 

The Burden of Egypt begins properly here, for chapter 18 was more in the nature of an advance warning, without including any direct threat of heaven's wrath. But now, in the two parts of this Burden there is explicit prophecy of sweeping judgment, but also assurance of ultimate blessing.

 

Verses 1 -15 are in poetic form, and the rest is prose. The modern versions bring this out excellently.

 

It seems probable, in the light of the Herodotus version of this part of Egypt's history, that even after the defeat of Tirhakah's army at El-tekeh, the ultimate rout of Sennacherib's army (foretold in 18:6) would be attributed by the Egyptians to the advance of another army from Egypt and to the influence of the gods of Egypt successfully sought by the Pharaoh (not Tirhakah) who was apparently a priest also.

 

Appropriately, then, the impending judgment on Egypt is introduced by a vivid picture of the God of Israel going into action, the prophet's language constantly echoing the Exodus narrative of the plagues in Egypt and the freedom won by Moses for Israelite captives there:


Isaiah 19

Exodus

Isaiah 19

Exodus

1

13:21,22; 12:12,30

14

7:13

3

7:11,22; 8:7; 7:12

16

7:5,19

4

1:8

17

7:12,20

5

7:19ff

20

3:9,10; 2:23-25

11

7:11; Ps. 78:11,43

22

9:15; 12:23

12

8:19


 

There is a sharp contrast between the tranquil cloud of blessing associated with God's presence with His people (18:4), and the swift cloud of judgment, rather like the eye of a hurricane, by which God manifested Himself when delivering Israel from Egypt (Ex. 14:24). Jehovah is often spoken of as travelling on a cloud or on the wings of the storm (Dt. 33:26, against Egypt; Ps. 68:33, in the wilderness; Nah. 1:3, against Assyria; Ps. 18:10; 104:3). In Ex. 14, the Cloud of the Shekinah Glory was travelling from Egypt into the wilderness because His people were going thither. Now because refugees of His people were fleeing into Egypt (v. 18), their God also "cometh into Egypt" with them. And "the idols of Egypt" which had felt the divine stroke in the time of Moses (Ex. 12:12; Num. 33:4) and which again were being relied upon by deluded Egyptian superstition, are "moved at his presence" (cp. 1 Sam. 5:4).

 

One of the resulting judgments is civil war and social and industrial chaos throughout the land. Herodotus describes just such a period in Egypt soon after 700 B.C. "I will swallow up the counsel thereof" uses the very word for Aaron's rod becoming a serpent and swallowing up the rods of the Egyptians (Ex. 7:12).

 

The idols — the "not-gods" — are exposed as futile, and the people of that land come under the control of "a cruel lord, a fierce king." Here "lord" is plural and "cruel" is singular, thus suggesting what is known as an intensive plural — a singular expressed by means of a plural, here meaning: "an excessively cruel lord."

 

And his identity? The commentaries produce a bewildering variety of suggestions — guesses, all of them: Sargon, Psammetichus (who re-unified Egypt 15 years after the time of Hezekiah), Nebuchadnezzar, the Persian dynasty, the Romans, the Saracens. Of these, the first is the most likely, or even better still, Sennacherib. But it has to be confessed that the fragmentary archeology of that period has not as yet produced any clear sign of that Assyrian tyrant getting as far as Egypt. But it would be surprising if, after his easy and over-whelming victory over the Egyptians at El-tekeh, Sennacherib did not set his sights on the plundering of that land, as a good compensation for his ignoble overthrow outside Jerusalem. "I gave Egypt for thy (Zion's) ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee" (43:3). These words seem to imply that the Assyrians were vouchsafed a rewarding, if only brief, success in Egypt as a kind of "compensation" for being robbed of victory in Judaea by the angel of the Lord.

 

"Saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts" guarantees the fulfilment of the prophecy. It is yet another allusion back to the days of Moses when the angel hosts did God's bidding in Egypt (Ex. 12:23; Ps. 78:43-49).

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19:5-10 "And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither. The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more, The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded. And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish."

 

In both literal and symbolic language this paragraph describes all aspects of Egyptian life reduced to chaos. By "the sea" is meant the Nile (as in 18:2; Nah. 3:8), and by "the brooks" there is reference to the vast Nile delta (5 times the word is translated "Nile" in R.V.). Verse 5 is evidently alluded to by Ezekiel in a similar prophecy (30:12), and it appears to be quoted almost verbatim in Job 14:11 (the Book of Job was most probably written in the time of Isaiah, even though its action belongs to an earlier period).

 

"Rivers of defence" are really "irrigation canals of misery", the last word being the unusual singular form of the word for Egypt (s.w. 37:25) — it is another example of Isaiah's clever juggling with words.

 

Verse 9 describes the flax and cotton industry, and v.8,10 the intensive and rewarding fishing then possible in Nile waters.

 

The "pillars broken in pieces" (v. 10 R.V.) are a figurative reference to "the wise counsellors of Pharaoh" (v.11) his cabinet controlling national policies (cp. OT. use of "cornerstone"). But considering the massive pillars which made (and make) Egyptian temples so impressive, there is probably a marked element of the literal here also (cp. Gal. 2:9).

 

The question arises whether social, political, and industrial chaos on this scale overtook Egypt in Isaiah's time. Specific information is fragmentary. But assuming that 37:25 (Heb.), 43:3 are sufficient Biblical indication of an Assyrian invasion then, it can only have been short and sharp in its effects, leaving each of the twelve "cantons" of the land to assert its own independence. There is every reason to look for a yet further fulfilment of this "burden."

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19:11-15 "Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do."

 

Here is sustained and contemptuous exposure of the experienced statecraft of Egypt. The political skill of that land's priests and Pharaohs had wide reputation out­side its own borders (Ex. 1:10; 1 Kgs. 4:30; Acts 7:22). Yet it would all prove useless to stave off the downfall and chaos purposed by the Lord of the hosts of angels, who in Moses' day had wrought such havoc in that land of unmatched prosperity (Ps. 78:49).

 

Why should these statesmen preen themselves on their skill in steering affairs, when they failed utterly (as in Moses' day) to respond to the elementary challenge of a genuine prophet: "Let them tell now...let them know (i.e. beforehand) what Jehovah hath purposed upon Egypt." It was a challenge going back to Moses himself (Dt. 18:22), and it was to be scornfully repeated by Isaiah time and time again against the gods of Assyria (41:22,26; 43:9; 45:21; 48:14). These Egyptian leaders of Zoan and Noph (Tanis and Memphis) boasted of descent from ancient lines of priests and kings, yet very soon political events were to expose their ineptitude. "The stay of the tribes" seems to imply, in LXX reading, the very opposite — the breakdown into small in­dependencies, brought on by humiliating Assyrian defeats. Isaiah lived to see it.

 

Isaiah5HAW.jpg

 

 

The profundity of wisdom which led to such a collapse was to De seen by and by as nothing less than inspiration from the Lord. He would instil into these political savants the folly of a drunken man (aye, and later, the same exposure to contempt would come to Israel's faithless priests also; 28:7). All Egypt at a standstill! Head and tail, branch and rush — all segments of society (v.5-10).

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19:16,17 "In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it. And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it."

 

Here begins the prose section of this chapter. It divides readily into five paragraphs each beginning in true prophetic style, with "In that day," each paragraph having strong emphasis on "the LORD of hosts."

 

The "day" spoken of is not a "date" on the calendar, but it is specific never­theless, as a day purposed and planned (v. 17) by Jehovah when a mighty divine activity will be readily discernible in Egypt by the faithful.

 

The Egyptians will become soft as women, filled with fear at the shaking of the hand of Jehovah, as happened very evidently in the time of Moses (Ex. 7:5; 10:12), and as Isaiah had already foretold: "With his mighty wind he will shake his hand over the River (Euphrates)" bringing also judgment on "the tongue of the Egyptian sea." (11:15). In this place (19:16) the Hebrew word seems to be chosen to make indirect allusion to Noph (Memphis), the mighty centre of the Egyptian kingdoms.

 

As in Moses' day Egypt's people were driven to fear of the God of Israel, so on this later occasion "the land of Judah will be a terror" to them. The only possible explanation of this is the awe-inspiring disaster which the angel of the Lord brought on the invincible army of Sennacherib. This was "the counsel of the Lord of hosts which he had counselled." Already, in earlier prophecies Isaiah had spoken explicit­ly about this impending unique crisis.

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19:18 "In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction."

 

There is hardly any detail in this verse which is not problematical.

 

The language of Canaan is, of course, Hebrew. But is it Hebrew spoken by Jewish refugees or Jewish captives? The attempts at Egyptian alliance in Hezekiah's day (e.g. 30:1,2) make the former explanation more probable (and 11:11 supports this).

 

But why the mention of Canaan, for the name was already (in Isaiah's time) near to being an anachronism? Most probably, to recall the migration of Jacob and his family into Egypt, or perhaps to hint at how Abraham took refuge there and was protected from harm — God's faithful (but frightened) people were turning to Him in despair (v.19) and continuing to swear loyalty to Him even though far from His sanctuary. In due time (11:11; 18:7) they were to be brought home again.

 

This prophecy speaks of five cities where these Jews are concentrated. The emphasis on five might suggest loyalty to the Law, or — differently — might imply by its use of the Egyptian sacred or lucky number (Gen. 43:34; 45:22 47:2) the ready acceptance of the Jews into Egypt. It has been suggested that the five cities are the three named in Jeremiah 44:1, together with Heliopolis (the city of the sun) and Leontopolis where, centuries later, a Jewish temple was erected for the Egyptian Diaspora.

 

"The city of destruction" is almost certainly Heliopolis (Gen. 41:45; Jer. 43:13), for the Hebrew word (=On) is almost identical with "sun" — it is one of Isaiah's characteristic puns. Ezekiel similarly juggles with the name On (30:17), turning it into the Hebrew for vanity. The form of the phrase means: 'the city that is to be destroyed' (cp. usage in 24:10;Zech. 11:4) — destroyed because of its idolatry, for these are the associations of the Hebrew word (Ex. 23:24; Jud. 6:25). It is understandable that LXX should somehow turn this name into "city of righteousness," for that Greek version of the Old Testament was made in Egypt for the benefit of its Jewish community, who would not like to think of themselves as coming under judgment there. It is known that, at the time when the LXX version was made, Onias, the son of the high priest, quoted the next verse about "an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt" as Biblical ground why an auxiliary Jewish temple should be built there (the Jews have always shown themselves good at this Kind of misuse of Scripture to serve their own ends; see on 44:28). It was probably with mistaken self-laudatory reference to this prophecy — "he will send them a saviour, a great one" (v.20) — that one of the Ptolemy's ruling in Egypt called himself Soter, the Saviour.

 

The destruction foretold here was probably brought about by an Assyrian invasion in the time of Sennacherib. "I gave Egypt for thy ransom" (43:3) is very pointed; but it has to be admitted that thus far no archaeological evidence has come to light of such an inroad.

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19:19-22 "in that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt; and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them. And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it. And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even unto the LORD, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them."

 

The details of this prophetic vision, especially when linked with v.23-25, are readily seen to be most relevant to the Last Days, as the more Messianic segments of this prophecy already considered have been likewise seen to be. Even so, it is not amiss to look for a certain relevance also to Isaiah's own time.

 

An altar to Jehovah in Egypt serves to emphasize a strong Jewish presence there, as the mention of "the language of Canaan" has already done. The commen­tators are very fond of reading Isaiah here as foretelling the Jewish temple built by Onias at Leontopolis c. 170 B.C., but such a reference is hopelessly out of character for Isaiah. A good expositor will look at events in his day, and in Messiah's. With hardly an exception this is the character of Old Testament prophecy.

 

There is now considerable evidence of strong Jewish settlements in Egypt c. 530 B.C. Such passages as 49:11,12,22,23 show clearly enough that the Assyrian invasion of Judah produced an indiscriminate scattering of Jewish refugees long before 530 B.C. Egypt was an obvious place of refuge, as it had been right from the time of Abraham.

 

Deuteronomy (e.g. 16:6,15) repeatedly commanded that sacrifice was to be offered only "at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose." But now here as in Hezekiah's reformation Passover (2 Chr. 30:13,17,18,23), there is indication of relaxation of the rigidity of the Law for such of the people as had its essential principles at heart.

 

This altar is to be seen as comparable to that erected at Jordan by the eastern tribes, not in a schismatic spirit but to proclaim their essential oneness with their brethren in the Holy Land proper. Their altar was meant as a witness to this wholesome frame of mind (Josh. 22:27,28). And would it not also assert that Jehovah was "the God of the gods of Egypt" (Delitsch)?

 

Similarly a pillar at the N.E. border of Egypt was to proclaim a covenant unity (Gen. 28:18-22) with the Jews back home. More than this, as Jacob's pillar at Galeed-Mizpah proclaimed his set purpose never to make any future interference with the inheritance of the sons of Laban (Gen. 31:45-53), so now there was to be assurance of no further Egyptian interference with Israel's affairs, neither were Jews again to seek a craven refuge in the land of Egypt.

 

During Hezekiah's day this sensible separation was observed. Migdol (=watchtower; Ex. 14:2) proclaimed the same truth as Mizpah-of-Jacob. But in later generations, especially in the reigns of Josiah (2 Kgs. 23:29,30) and Zedekiah (Jer. 42-44), both parties disregarded this God-appointed covenant.

 

In all countries refugees are persecuted by a large proportion of the host nation. The early Israelites in Egypt had found that a bitter truth; and so also in Isaiah's time. But the cry of faith of those who now fled thither, would be heard, and the saviour raised up on their behalf was the great man of faith, Hezekiah. Very soon, for his sake the arm of the Lord was revealed against the oppressions of the invader of Judah, and thus the way was made open for an uneasy diaspora to return in the year of Jubilee which followed that deliverance.

 

In this way "the Lord was made known (i.e. openly; Ps. 48:3; 76:1 — both are Hezekiah psalms) not only to His own people but also to Gentiles round about, and especially to Egypt, so that there was an immediate readiness to honour the greatness of Jehovah (2 Chr. 32:23).

 

Alas, this Egyptian piety did not last. Their wily priests saw to that. In their later tradition (according to Herodotus) it was through the virtue of an Egyptian king-priest that the Assyrian invaders were brought to nought! (H.Gt, p.75).

 

The smiting of Egypt (v.22), which is vividly foretold in v.1 - 10, took place in the massive defeat of Pharaoh's army at El-tekeh, and may have been the con­sequence of ill-treatment of Hebrew refugees. However, the overthrow of the Assyrians at Jerusalem changed Egyptian attitudes drastically to one of reverence for Israel's God: "They shall return unto the Lord, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them."

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19:23-25 "In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance."

 

In 18:6 and 19:1 -11 there is foretold a humbling of both Assyria and Egypt, two mighty powers whose economic and military resources completely dwarfed those of Judah. Now there is blessing for them both, but only through union with God's people in the service of God. Of such an amazing transformation in Isaiah's time there are only limited indications. Certainly after the overwhelming of the Assyrian army at Jerusalem there was a sudden surge of readiness to make friends with the God who wrought such wonders and with His righteous king reigning in Jerusalem (2 Chr. 32:23; Ps. 87, with Assyria significantly omitted; Is. 60:6-12; 49:22-23), but it is obvious enough to any experienced student of prophecy that the real fulfil­ment of these words belongs to the reign of the Messiah, whom Hezekiah so wonderfully foreshadowed.

 

In the prototype the highway was important for the multitudes of captives in Babylon and unwanted refugees in Egypt who were soon to come flocking back home. Formerly despised and cursed, they would be treated with helpful respect as a people wearing the badge of the mighty Lord of hosts.

 

As will be shown later, all the features of the situation and the phraseology of the prophet fit the year of Jubilee which followed immediately after Jerusalem's deliverance (2 Kgs. 19:29,30), but of course the true relevance is with reference to Messiah's Jubilee.

 

"Egypt shall serve (the Lord) with the Assyrians" is certainly the meaning of this incomplete phrase. Verse 21 has the same word: "and shall do sacrifice" (cp. the use of the same word in Ex. 3:12; 9:13; 10:26; 12:31).

 

It is time to consider this prophecy — Isaiah 19 — once again, and with special care, with reference to its further fulfilment in the Last Days.

 

The first fifteen verses are readily understood of a mighty disaster yet to overtake the land of Egypt. Perhaps the emphatic language about the drying up of the waters is to be read figuratively of a complete financial and social collapse of the country. But one is led to consider the possibility that earthquake in Africa's rift valley, or maybe massive nuclear action, might send the waters of Ethiopia flowing south in­stead of north, thus, ovemight, making Egypt almost uninhabitable. Or, is it the recent very dramatic, climatic change (nine years of drought at the sources of the Nile)

 

There are also long detailed prophecies about the downfall of Egypt in Jeremiah 46 and Ezekiel 30,32. As with Isaiah 18,19, reference of these to contemporary overthrow of Egyptian prosperity is relatively straightforward. But if, after the normal pattern of Bible prophecy, there is also a further reference to the Last Days, any in­terpretation before the event becomes exceedingly problematical.

 

Joel 3:19 is very explicit, in what is very evidently a Last Day context: "Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land." The later part of Isaiah 19 (e.g. v.21-25) describes a blessing on Egypt which is to come about only after the exercise of the severe divine discipline described in the prophecies just referred to.

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It is remarkable that here for "terror" (v.17) LXX has the same word as in Luke 21:11 — "fearful sights," in the Last Days. It is a word which occurs nowhere else.

 

The rest of this chapter presents a remarkably vivid picture of dramatic events in the Middle East at the time of Israel's final travail.

 

It is difficult to envisage Israelis fleeing to Egypt for sanctuary in the face of irresistible invasion, for it may be taken as certain that in any time of Arab hostility to Israel, Egypt, in spite of a formal (and quite futile) treaty of friendship with Israel, will be an enemy at the first political opportunity. Joel 3:19 describes the true Egyptian attitude in the Last Days.

 

Then how will "the language of Canaan" come to be spoken in five cities in Egypt? Probably through the rounding-up of many Jews as prisoners and slave labour. In such circumstances of utter hopelessness these Jews will be driven to repentance — hence "an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt," that is, prayers for a deliverance which, it is now seen, can come from no other source.

 

When there is this "cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors" (cp. Ex. 3:9; 14:13), the divine response will be immediate, as it so often was in the times of the Judges: "he will send them a Saviour, a great one," none other than their Messiah. In Hebrew the word for Saviour, Moshiah, makes an easy play on the name Moses, Mosheh.

 

In the time of Moses, that ancient Pharaoh stridently asked. "Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice, to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go" (Ex. 5:2). But by and by he changed his tune. So also in this crisis yet in the future.

 

There will again be appropriate retribution against Egypt ("he that curseth thee, I will curse"), yet only for a time. When the King of the Jews is acknowledged, then — having smitten — God will heal: "he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them." Now, instead of a repeated hardening of heart by a Pharaoh who would not keep faith the Egyptian will "vow a vow unto Jehovah, and will perform it."

 

The fourth and fifth repetitions of "in that day" (11:10,11; 12:1; Zech. 12,13,14) underline the Messianic character of this remarkable prophecy. And the highway, which is such a feature in Isaiah (11:16; 35:8; 40:3; Mic. 7:12RV; Is. 62:10), emphasizes not only a new spirit of fellowship among nations always ready to indulge in hatred — "Assyrians into Egypt, and Egyptians into Assyria" — but also the transformed spirit which makes them all eager to serve Jehovah. There is probably another of Isaiah's puns here, for, both written and read, "serve" ('abdu) is marvellously close to 'abru, "become Hebrews, cross over;" v.23 has this very idea.

 

The emphasis on "a third" prepares the way for a similar repetition on a big scale in the Trumpets in Revelation (8:7-12; 9:15,18; 12:4), thus providing another hint for Last Day interpretation of the Trumpets on lines similar to Isaiah 19.

 

Also, the Jubilee phraseology of v.24,25 really comes into its own.

 

"Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it (the Land) shall bring forth fruit for three years" (Lev. 25:21; A. Chambers has an excellent study on this) — this is "the blessing in the midst of the Land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless."

 

"Egypt my people" echoes another Jubilee idea — scattered and enslaved people being set free and helped to return to their homes (Lev. 25:10).

 

"Assyria the work of my hands" underlines that in Jubilee year there was no cultivation; whatever grew then prospered only by the special blessing of God, it was the work of His hands (25:11).

 

And "Israel mine inheritance" is an easy allusion to "the redemption of the land" for every family (25:24ff).

 

All of these blessings will overflow to all nations when Messiah reigns in Jerusalem. It is a superb heart-warming picture, packed into a handful of verses, and all the more powerful for the contrast with the beginning of the chapter.

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Chapter 20

 

20:1 "In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;"

 

This chapter is dated quite precisely, and with the help of Sargon's inscriptions can be pin-pointed as 711 B.C. (unless the accepted Assyrian chronology is seriously wrong).

 

On the face of it this is a prophecy with a specific short-term fulfilment, sand­wiched between two blocks of five burdens, all of which refer to the nations round Judah. But whereas, as has been shown, there is a probable Last-Day reference of these other prophecies, there is no clear indication of the same being true regarding chapter 20.

 

So it would seem that this public short-term prophecy, readily put to the test within three years, served to guarantee the accuracy of the other burdens, both in their primary and later fulfilments.

 

Sargon was not the son of Shalmanezer V, who died during the three year siege of Samaria. He was probably the commander in chief of the Assyrian army in the field. His name may be read as meaning "Prince of Defence", the equivalent either of the modern "War Minister" or "Army Chief", the word defence being used with the same double-speak hypocrisy of the modern politician.

 

There is available here a neat indirect demonstration of the exactness of the historical record in Kings:

 

"Shalmanezer king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years they (not he) took it" (2 Kgs. 18:9,10). The death of Shalmanezer at Samaria required a change of pronoun. But yet it would not do to say Sargon took it, for this would imply that he forthwith succeeded to the kingship. However this was not the case, for since he was not Shalmanezer's son he found himself having to fight for the throne, a struggle which lasted two or three years. And for this reason also there was no crediting him with the success at Samaria.

 

Because of having so many other distractions, it was actually ten years after the fall of Samaria (711 B.C.) before the Assyrian drive towards Egypt could be resumed, and even then Sargon had to be content to entrust the campaign to his Tartan — the name is evidently a military title, for it crops up again eleven years later (2 Kgs. 18:17) in Sennacherib's campaign against Jerusalem.

 

Ashdod had been captured once by the Assyrians, but advantage had been taken from Sargon's preoccupation elsewhere to re-assert independence and to organize an alliance in that area against Assyria (so says Sargon's own inscription). It certainly looks from 2 Kings 18:8, as though Yamani, the king of Ashdod, was a Jewish puppet ruler (Khorsabad Inscription).

 

Egypt still remained the main target of Sargon's ambitions (never fulfilled in his reign), and since the strong fortress of Ashdod stood right across his path, it must perforce be captured, just as Sennacherib besieged and destroyed Lachish and as Alexander the Great was to do at Gezer.

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20:2,3 "At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;"

 

Three years before this came about (when it did, it happened all within a year), Isaiah was commissioned to proclaim the details of it, and the importance of this development for God's own people. It was to be his only acted prophecy.

 

The revelation came "by the hand of Isaiah the son of Amoz." Why the third person here? Why not "by me"? It seems not unlikely that whilst Isaiah acted the prophecy, according to divine instruction, the equally important record of it was written down by his wife, the prophetess. She was "the hand of Isaiah..."

 

The words are often misread as though for three full years the prophet always appeared naked and barefoot. But the rabbinic punctuation of the Hebrew text pointedly associates the three years with his being a sign and wonder. In other words, Isaiah proceeded with his acted parable of men of Ashdod being led away naked and barefoot on one occasion only, perhaps three times at yearly intervals; and until the fulfilment three years later the thing was remembered and talked of as a sign and wonder. Indeed, had Isaiah appeared in this very unconventional style for three years, the force of the sign would have been largely lost in its familiarity.

 

It is possible that Isaiah, who was a statesman and a man of importance in Jerusalem, wore sackcloth only when making public prophecy to king or people. It was, so to speak, his regalia of office (cp. Zech. 13:4; 2 Kgs. 1:8; Mt. 3:4; Is. 50:3,4; and so also, probably 1 Sam. 28:14).

 

It is not to be assumed that Isaiah went about the city in a state of complete nudity, but certainly unclothed. If the former, there would have been no need for the word "barefoot".

 

Presumably Isaiah was backed up in this demonstrative prophesying by his colleague Micah, a member of the same school of prophets, for Micah declared: "| will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals, and a mourning like the ostriches" (1:8 RV). These prophets were determined to get home their message of woe and judgment, as also was their Heavenly Master.

 

Yet in the midst of the humiliation of acting the part of a captive being led off in shame and misery, as Hitler treated multitudes of Jews (cp. 8:18), the dignity of Isaiah was saved by God's reference to him as "my servant," for this was a title of honour bestowed on such men as Abraham, Moses, David, Job and the Messiah.

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20:4-6 "So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?"

 

The chief problem here is to establish the link between the Assyrian capture of Ashdod and the shame (declared here beforehand) of Egypt-Ethiopia. The re¬construction seems to be this:

 

Ashdod had become a Jewish fortress, but already the lean-on-Egypt policy which Isaiah was to denounce so strongly later on, was beginning to dominate Judah's policy (the young king Hezekiah being under the influence of his princes, men of politics rather than faith); so evidently Egyptian help took the form of a garrison which to all intents and purposes made Ashdod into an Egyptian outpost.

 

These Egyptians, Isaiah now declared most explicitly, would experience the shame of captivity which the prophet himself had acted before the people of Jerusalem.

 

In all this he was trying to educate his nation to see Egypt as a worthless prop and an evil influence. Was it not Egyptian encouragement which had helped Jeroboam to bring about the schism between Israel and Judah (1 Kgs. 11:40)? The northern kingdom, remembering how its greatest tribes had been descended from an Egyptian mother (Gen. 41:50-52), had constantly followed a pro-Egyptian policy — to its own destruction (Hos. 7:16; 8:13; 9:3,6).

 

Ashdod was to be another, more immediate, reminder of Egyptian futility. Some years later Rabshakeh's scornful words were to imply that already Egypt's weakness had been exposed: "Thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him" (36:6). "They (the men of Judah) shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation" (20:5; cp. 30:3,5) — the repeated mention of Ethiopia being due to the fact that at that time Egypt was itself dominated by an Ethiopian dynasty.

 

The strange word "isle" in verse 6 may also mean "coastland, that which is beside the sea," with reference to Ashdod. But even more pointedly it may be used regarding Jerusalem which in the later grim days of Sennacherib was to be an island surrounded by the rising tide of Assyrian power.

 

If in the earliest encounter mighty Egypt is to be proved so futile and worthless an ally, what hope for Judah when Assyrian expansion comes to full flood? "How shall we escape?" If pagan nations with so little light suffer such retributions from God, what can faithless Chosen People expect from Assyria, the rod of God's anger?

 

And what a lesson to be learned by the New Israel: "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Heb. 2:3).

 

With this remarkable New Testament echo to suggest further reference of this prophecy, is it possible that in days soon to come modern Israel, trying to be friends with Egypt, will similarly pay for its faithless misguided statesmanship and be brought to a humiliation (but also deliverance) comparable to that which came about in Isaiah's day?

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