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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Isaiah 19 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/isaiah/19.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/isaiah/19.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/isaiah/19-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../isaiah/">Isaiah</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../isaiah/18.htm" title="Isaiah 18">◄</a> Isaiah 19 <a href="../isaiah/20.htm" title="Isaiah 20">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-1.htm">Isaiah 19:1</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div><span class= "bld">XIX.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">The burden of Egypt.</span>—In its political bearings, as Egypt and Ethiopia were at this time under the same ruler, Tirhakah, as they had been before under Piankhi-Mer-Amon, this prophecy presents nearly the same features as the preceding. Its chief characteristic is that it presents the condition of the conquered nation as distinct from that of the conqueror. The opening words declare that the long-delayed judgment is at last coming, swift as a cloud driven by the storm-wind, upon the idols of Egypt. Men shall feel that the presence of the Mighty One is among them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-2.htm">Isaiah 19:2</a></div><div class="verse">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, <i>and</i> kingdom against kingdom.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians . . .</span>—The discord predicted was probably the natural consequence of the overthrow of the Ethiopian power by Sargon, the Assyrian king, in B.C. 720. Under Piankhi each <span class= "ital">nome, </span>or district, had been governed by a chief, owning the suzerainty of the Ethiopian king, and these, when the restraint was removed, would naturally assert their independence. So Herodotus (ii. 147) relates that on the overthrow of Sabaco, the last of the Ethiopian dynasty, the unity of Egypt was broken up into a dodecarchy.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-3.htm">Isaiah 19:3</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">The charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits . . .</span>—The old reputation of Egypt for magic arts (<a href="/exodus/7-22.htm" title="And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he listen to them; as the LORD had said.">Exodus 7:22</a>; <a href="/exodus/8-7.htm" title="And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.">Exodus 8:7</a>) seems to have continued. The “charmers” or <span class= "ital">mutterers </span>were probably distinguished, like “those that peep” in <a href="/isaiah/8-19.htm" title="And when they shall say to you, Seek to them that have familiar spirits, and to wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek to their God? for the living to the dead?">Isaiah 8:19</a>, by some peculiar form of ventriloquism. A time of panic, when the counsels of ordinary statesmen failed, was sure there, as at Athens in its times of peril, to be fruitful in oracles and divinations.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-4.htm">Isaiah 19:4</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Into the hand of a cruel lord.</span>—The later history of Egypt presents so many pictures of oppressive government, that it is hard to say to which of them the picture thus drawn bears most resemblance. Sargon, or Esarhaddon, or Psammetichus, who became king of Egypt on the breaking up of the dodecarchy, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Cambyses, has, each in his turn, been identified as presenting the features of the “cruel lord.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-5.htm">Isaiah 19:5</a></div><div class="verse">And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">The waters shall fail from the sea.</span>—The “sea,” like the river, is, of course, the Nile (Homer calls it <span class= "ital">Oceanus</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>or, possibly, indicates specially the Pelusiac branch of the river. So the White and Blue Niles are respectively the White and Blue Seas (<span class= "ital">Bahr</span>)<span class= "ital">. </span>The words that follow seem to describe partly the result of the failure of the annual rising of the Nile, partly of the neglect of the appliances of irrigation caused by the anarchy implied in <a href="/isaiah/19-2.htm" title="And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.">Isaiah 19:2</a> (Herod. ii. 137).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-6.htm">Isaiah 19:6</a></div><div class="verse">And they shall turn the rivers far away; <i>and</i> the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">And they shall turn the rivers far away.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the river shall stagnate; i.e., </span>in consequence of the Nile’s inundation failing.<p><span class= "bld">The brooks of defence.</span>—The latter noun (Heb., <span class= "ital">matzor</span>) is better treated as a proper name, the singular of the dual form Mitsraim, commonly used for Egypt. Here it would seem to be used for Lower Egypt, the region of Zoan and Memphis, as distinct from Upper Egypt or the Thebaid. The same form occurs in <a href="/isaiah/37-25.htm" title="I have dig, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.">Isaiah 37:25</a>; <a href="/2_kings/19-24.htm" title="I have dig and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.">2Kings 19:24</a>; <a href="/micah/7-12.htm" title="In that day also he shall come even to you from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.">Micah 7:12</a>. Its primary meaning is that of a fortified land. The “flags” are strictly the papyrus of the Nile; the “brooks” are the <span class= "ital">canals </span>or Nile-branches of the Delta.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-7.htm">Isaiah 19:7</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>more</i>.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">The paper reeds by the brooks.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the meadows by the Nile. </span>And so in the other clauses, the Hebrew word for “brooks” being used specifically for that river. For “shall wither and be driven away,” read, <span class= "ital">shall dry up and vanish. </span>The valley of the Nile is to become as parched and barren as the desert on either side of it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-8.htm">Isaiah 19:8</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">The fishers also shall mourn.</span>—With the failure of the river, one at least of the industries of Egypt failed also. Fish had at all times formed part of the diet of the working-classes of Egypt (Herod. ii. 93; <a href="/numbers/11-5.htm" title="We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic:">Numbers 11:5</a>), and the pictures of Egyptian life continually represent the two modes of fishing, with the “angle” or hook, and with the net.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-9.htm">Isaiah 19:9</a></div><div class="verse">Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Moreover they that work in fine flax.</span>—Another class also would find its occupation gone. The “fine flax” was used especially for the dress of the priests (Herod. ii. 81), and for the mummy clothes of the dead (<a href="/1_kings/10-28.htm" title="And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price.">1Kings 10:28</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/27-7.htm" title="Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which you spread forth to be your sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered you.">Ezekiel 27:7</a>).<p><span class= "bld">They that weave networks.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">white cloths, </span>the cotton or byssus fabrics for which Egypt was famous.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-10.htm">Isaiah 19:10</a></div><div class="verse">And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices <i>and</i> ponds for fish.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the pillars thereof </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the props and columns of the state) <span class= "ital">shall be broken in pieces, and all those who work for wages </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the great masses of the people) <span class= "ital">shall be troubled in mind. </span>The word translated “purposes,” occurs in the sense here given in <a href="/psalms/11-3.htm" title="If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?">Psalm 11:3</a>, and is there translated “foundations.” (Compare the like figure in <a href="/ezekiel/30-4.htm" title="And the sword shall come on Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.">Ezekiel 30:4</a>; <a href="/galatians/2-9.htm" title="And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go to the heathen, and they to the circumcision.">Galatians 2:9</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-11.htm">Isaiah 19:11</a></div><div class="verse">Surely the princes of Zoan <i>are</i> fools, the counsel of the wise counsellers of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I <i>am</i> the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Surely the princes of Zoan are fools.</span>—Zoan, the great city of the Delta, was known to the Greeks as Tanis, founded, as stated in <a href="/numbers/13-22.htm" title="And they ascended by the south, and came to Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)">Numbers 13:22</a>, seven years after Hebron. Here the great Rameses II. fixed his capital, and the city thus acquired the name of Pi-Rameses.<p><span class= "bld">How say ye unto Pharaoh . . .?</span>—The princes of Zoan, probably priest-princes and priest-magicians (<a href="/exodus/7-11.htm" title="Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.">Exodus 7:11</a>), boasting at once of their wisdom and their ancestry, are represented as speaking to the Pharaoh of the time (probably, as in Isaiah 18, of Ethiopian origin) in something like a tone of superiority. They claim to be the only counsellors; and the prophet challenges their claim. Can they disclose, as he can, the future that impends over their country?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-13.htm">Isaiah 19:13</a></div><div class="verse">The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, <i>even they that are</i> the stay of the tribes thereof.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">The princes of Noph.</span>—Probably, as in the LXX., Noph is the same as Memphis. The name has been derived (1) from <span class= "ital">Ma-m-pthah </span>(“the house of Pthah,” an Egyptian deity of the Hephæstos, or Yulcan type); or (2), and more correctly, from <span class= "ital">Men-nepher </span>(“place of the good”). This also was, as in <a href="/hosea/9-6.htm" title="For, see, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.">Hosea 9:6</a> (where we have the form Moph), one of the chief royal cities of Lower Egypt, and the seat of the Ethiopian dynasty then ruling.<p><span class= "bld">Even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the corner-stone of the castes. </span>The word is the same as the “corner” of <a href="/zechariah/10-4.htm" title="Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together.">Zechariah 10:4</a>, the “chief” of <a href="/judges/20-2.htm" title="And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.">Judges 20:2</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/14-38.htm" title="And Saul said, Draw you near here, all the chief of the people: and know and see wherein this sin has been this day.">1Samuel 14:38</a>, and describes the position of superiority among the Egyptian castes claimed by the priest-rulers of Zoan and Noph.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-14.htm">Isaiah 19:14</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>man</i> staggereth in his vomit.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">hath poured a spirit of giddiness. </span>As in <a href="/1_kings/22-22.htm" title="And the LORD said to him, With which? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, You shall persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.">1Kings 22:22</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/16-14.htm" title="But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.">1Samuel 16:14</a>, the infatuation of the Egyptian rulers is thought of as a judicial blindness. Prostrate or vacillating amid the wrecks of frustrated hopes and plans, they are as the drunkard staggering in his foulness. (Comp. <a href="/isaiah/29-9.htm" title="Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry you out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.">Isaiah 29:9</a>.)<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-15.htm">Isaiah 19:15</a></div><div class="verse">Neither shall there be <i>any</i> work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">The head or tail, branch or rush.</span>—For this figurative description of all classes of the people, see Note on <a href="/isaiah/9-14.htm" title="Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.">Isaiah 9:14</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-16.htm">Isaiah 19:16</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">In that day shall Egypt be like unto “women.</span>—This image of panic, terror, and weakness has been natural in the poetry of all countries (comp. Homer, “Achæan women, not Achæan men”), and appears in its strongest form in <a href="/jeremiah/48-41.htm" title="Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men's hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.">Jeremiah 48:41</a>. In such a state, even the land of Judah, once so despised, shall become a source of terror.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-18.htm">Isaiah 19:18</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan.</span>—The prophecy is, it will be noticed, parallel to that affecting Ethiopia in <a href="/isaiah/18-7.htm" title="In that time shall the present be brought to the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning till now; 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.">Isaiah 18:7</a>, and at least expresses the yearnings of the prophet’s heart after the conversion of Egypt to the worship of Jehovah. Like the previous prediction, it connects itself with Psalms 87, as recording the admission of proselytes as from other countries, so also from Rahab (<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>Egypt). The “five cities” stand either as a certain number for an uncertain (<a href="/isaiah/30-17.htm" title="One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee: till you be left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.">Isaiah 30:17</a>; <a href="/isaiah/17-6.htm" title="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, said the LORD God of Israel.">Isaiah 17:6</a>; <a href="/leviticus/26-8.htm" title="And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.">Leviticus 26:8</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/14-19.htm" title="Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.">1Corinthians 14:19</a>), or possibly as the actual number of the chief or royal cities of Egypt. The “language of Canaan” is Hebrew, and the prediction is that this will become the speech of the worshippers of Jehovah in the Egyptian cities. There is to be one universal speech for the universal Church of the true Israel.<p><span class= "bld">And swear to the Lord of hosts.</span>—The oath, as in the parallel phrase of <a href="/isaiah/45-23.htm" title="I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.">Isaiah 45:23</a>, is one of allegiance, and implies, therefore, something like a covenant of obedience.<p><span class= "bld">The city of destruction.</span>—There is probably something like a play on the name of the Egyptian city On, the Greek Heliopolis, the City of the Sun (Heb., <span class= "ital">Ir-ha-kheres</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>and the word which the prophet actually uses (<span class= "ital">Ir-ha-cheres</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>the “city of destruction.” The paronomasia, like in character to Ezekiel’s transformation of On into Aven, “nothingness,” or “vanity” (<a href="/ezekiel/30-17.htm" title="The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity.">Ezekiel 30:17</a>), or Hosea’s of Beth-el (“house of God”) into Bethaven (“ house of nothingness”) (<a href="/hosea/4-15.htm" title="Though you, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not you to Gilgal, neither go you up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD lives.">Hosea 4:15</a>), was intended to indicate the future demolition of the sun-idols, and is so interpreted in the Targum on this passage, “Bethshemesh (<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>Heliopolis), whose future fate shall be destruction.” The word for destruction is cognate with the verb used of Gideon’s breaking down the image of Baal, in <a href="/judges/6-25.htm" title="And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said to him, Take your father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the grove that is by it:">Judges 6:25</a>; and in Jeremiah’s prophecy (<a href="/jeremiah/43-13.htm" title="He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.">Jeremiah 43:13</a>), “He shall break the pillars in the house of the sun,” we may probably trace an allusive reference to Isaiah’s language. Other meanings, such as “city of rescue,” “city of protection,” “city of restoration,” have been suggested, but on inadequate grounds. The Vulg. gives <span class= "ital">civitas solis. </span>The LXX. rendering, “city <span class= "ital">asedek,” </span>apparently following a different reading of the Hebrew, and giving the meaning, “city of righteousness,” was probably connected historically with the erection of a Jewish temple at Leon-topolis by Onias IV., in the time of Ptolemy Philomêtor, which for some two centuries shared with the Temple at Jerusalem the homage of Egyptian Jews. Onias and his followers pointed to Isaiah’s words as giving a sanction to what their brethren in Palestine looked on as a rival and sacrilegious worship.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-19.htm">Isaiah 19:19</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord . . .</span>—The words naturally tended to bring about their own fulfilment, as related in the preceding note. From the prophet’s own stand-point, however, the altar was probably thought of, not as the centre of a rival worship, but, like that erected by the trans-Jordanic tribes in the time of Joshua, as an altar of “witness” (<a href="/joshua/22-27.htm" title="But that it may be a witness between us, and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, You have no part in the LORD.">Joshua 22:27</a>), and the words that follow supply a distinct confirmation of this view. Substantially the prophet saw in the distant future a time in which the connection between Judah and Egypt should be one influencing the latter for good, and not the former for evil. The admission of Egyptian and Ethiopian proselytes, already referred to, was as the first fruits of such an influence. It may not be without interest to note some of its later workings. (1) In the time of Manasseh, who gave to his son Amon a name singularly Egyptian in its sound, a body of Jewish settlers were invited by Psammetichus to station themselves on the frontiers of Upper Egypt (“Pseudo-Aristeas,” in Hudson’s <span class= "ital">Josephus</span>)<span class= "ital">. </span>(2) Under Ptolemy I. large numbers of Jewish emigrants fixed themselves at Alexandria, with full toleration of their faith and worship. (3) Under Ptolemy Philadelphus the intercourse between the Palestinians and Egyptians led to the translation of the Old Testament Scriptures known as the LXX., and this was followed by the growth of a Hellenistic or a Græco-Jewish literature, of which we have the remains in the Apocrypha and in Philo. (4) There was the erection of the Leontopolis Temple, already spoken of, and this was followed by that of numerous synagogues, perhaps also of monasteries for communities of Jewish ascetics of the Essene type, such as that which Philo describes under the name of the <span class= "ital">Thera-pœutœ </span>(Euseb. <span class= "ital">H.E. ii.</span> 17).<p><span class= "bld">A pillar at the border thereof . . .</span>—The pillar was the familiar obelisk of the Egyptians, commonly associated with the worship of the sun. The point of Isaiah’s prediction was that the symbol should be rescued from its idolatrous uses, and stand on the border-land of Egypt and of Judah, as a witness that Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, was worshipped in both countries.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-20.htm">Isaiah 19:20</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(20) F<span class= "bld">or they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors . . .</span>—The words are almost as an anticipation of the great truth proclaimed in <a href="/john/4-21.htm" title="Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.">John 4:21</a>. The prayers of the worshippers in spirit and in truth, whether Jews or proselytes, in Egypt should find as immediate an access to the ear of Jehovah as if they had been offered in the Temple at Jerusalem. If the people suffered under the oppression of a Pharaoh, or a Cambyses, or a Ptolemy, and prayed for deliverance, He would as certainly send them a saviour who should free them from the yoke as He had sent saviours to Israel of old in the persons of the judges (<a href="/judges/3-9.htm" title="And when the children of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.">Judges 3:9</a>; <a href="/judges/3-15.htm" title="But when the children of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man left handed: and by him the children of Israel sent a present to Eglon the king of Moab.">Judges 3:15</a>; <a href="/judges/4-4.htm" title="And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.">Judges 4:4</a>). It is open to us to see a yet higher fulfilment in the fact that the message of the Gospel brought peace and joy to those who were weary and heavy laden in Egypt, as well as in Galilee; to those who were looking for redemption in Alexandria not less than to those who were looking for it in Jerusalem.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-21.htm">Isaiah 19:21</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>it</i>.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">The Egyptians shall know the Lord . . .</span>—Here also we note what we may venture to call the catholicity of Isaiah’s mind. The highest of all blessings, the knowledge of God as He is (<a href="/john/17-3.htm" title="And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.">John 17:3</a>), was not to be the exclusive inheritance of Israel, but was to be shared even by the nation whom she had reason to regard as her hereditary enemy.<p><span class= "bld">Sacrifice and oblation.</span>—The two words describe respectively the slain victims and the meat, or rather, <span class= "ital">meal, </span>offerings of the Law. Did the prophet, we ask, think of such sacrifices as literally offered in Egypt, or did he look beyond the symbol to the thing symbolised? The builders of the temple at Leontopolis took the former view. Those who have entered into the mind and spirit of Isaiah will be inclined, perhaps, to take the latter. A literal fulfilment has been found in the fact that Ptolemy Euergetes (B.C. 244) came to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices in the Temple.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-22.htm">Isaiah 19:22</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal <i>it</i>: and they shall return <i>even</i> to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">And the Lord shall smite Egypt . . .</span>—The tone of the preceding verses seems at first at variance with the stern prophecies of disaster with which the chapter opened. The prophet, however, is no eater of his words. What he has learnt is to look beyond the chastisement, and to see that it is as true of Egypt as of Israel, that “whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” The sword of Jehovah smote but to heal, and the healing could not come without the smiting. Through it they would be led to pray, and prayer was the condition of all spiritual recovery.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-23.htm">Isaiah 19:23</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria.</span>—The prophet’s horizon at once brightens and expands. Palestine was in his time the battle-field of the two great empires. The armies of one of the great powers crossed it both before and after, as in the case of Shishak, Zerah, Tirhakah, Necho, Sargon, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, on their march against the other. The prophet looks forward to a time when the long-standing discord should cease (Assyria, or the power which succeeded her, gaining for a time the suzerainty), and both should be joined with Israel, as in “a three-fold cord, not easily broken.” Like other bright ideals of the future, it yet waits for its complete fulfilment. The nearest historical approximation to it is, perhaps, found in the Persian monarchy, including, as it did, the territory of Assyria, of Israel, and of Egypt, and acknowledging, through the proclamations of Cyrus, Jehovah as the God of heaven (<a href="/ezra/1-2.htm" title="Thus said Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.">Ezra 1:2</a>). May we connect this prediction with Isaiah’s distinctly defined anticipation of the part which Persia was to play in the drama of the world’s history as an iconoclastic and monotheistic power, and so with the dominant idea of Isaiah 40-66?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/19-25.htm">Isaiah 19:25</a></div><div class="verse">Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed <i>be</i> Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless . . .</span>—In this tripartite holy alliance Israel is to retain the spiritual supremacy. Egypt, once alien, becomes the people of the Lord. (Comp. <a href="/context/hosea/1-9.htm" title="Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.">Hosea 1:9-10</a>.) Assyria is recognised as the instrument which He has made to do His work (comp. <a href="/isaiah/10-15.htm" title="Shall the ax boast itself against him that hews therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shakes it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.">Isaiah 10:15</a>; <a href="/isaiah/37-26.htm" title="Have you 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 you should be to lay waste defended cities into ruinous heaps.">Isaiah 37:26</a>); but Israel has the proud pre-eminence of being His “inheritance.”<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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