Isaiah 19:19

In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt,.... Josephus (c), and other Jewish writers (d), suppose this to be fulfilled when Onias, the son of Simeon the just,

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. -Suffering shall lead to repentance.

An altar for God’ s worship; not a Levitical, but a spiritual and evangelical altar, as appears from hence, because that was confined to one place, ,14. The altar is put for the worship of God, as it is in many places both of the Old and New Testament. And nothing is more common in the prophets than to speak of gospel worship in the phrases of the law. A pillar; a monument of the true religion. Here also he alludes to the ancient custom of erecting pillars to God; of which See Poole "", See Poole "", See Poole "", See Poole "", See Poole "". At the border thereof; as before, in the midst of it. The meaning is, There shall be evidences of their piety in all places.

Isaiah 19:19 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.Ver. 19. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord.] A spiritual altar for spiritual sacrifices. Onias, the Jewish priest, who hereupon went and built an altar at Heliopolis in Egypt, and sacrificed to God there, was as much mistaken as the Anabaptists of Germany were in their Munster, which they termed New Jerusalem, and acted accordingly, sending forth apostles, casting out orthodox ministers, &c. And a pillar in the border thereof.] That is, saith one, the gospels and writings of the apostles, that pillar and ground of truth, or a public confession of the Christian, faith. An allusion to Joshua 22:10; Joshua 22:25. See Zechariah 14:9; Zechariah 14:20-21.

(19) In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord . . .—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” (Joshua 22:27), 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 Josephus). (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 Thera-pœutœ (Euseb. H.E. ii. 17). A pillar at the border thereof . . .—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.

Verse 19. An altar to the Lord] צבאות tsebaoth, "of hosts," or Yehovah tsebaoth, is added by eight MSS. of good repute, and the Syriac Version.

19. It was to this verse, according to Josephus (and not to Isaiah 19:18), that Onias appealed in support of the legitimacy of his project. The statement is perfectly intelligible; it had never occurred to any one to think of Leontopolis in connexion with Isaiah 19:18; on the other hand, the promise of Isa 19:19 was warrant enough. an altar to the Lord] evidently intended for sacrificial offerings, not a mere memorial (see Isaiah 19:21). The writer thus transcends the limits of the Mosaic legislation, which recognised but one altar of Jehovah. Some explain the prediction in a symbolical sense, of the spiritual worship of Jehovah maintained by the Jews and their proselytes. But this is hardly justifiable. a pillar at the border thereof] The word maηηηbβ usually denotes the sacred stones which stood by the idolatrous shrines of Canaan and whose destruction is enjoined in the Law (Deuteronomy 16:22; Exodus 23:24, &c.). From its use here it has been inferred that the prophecy dates from a time anterior to the promulgation of the Deuteronomic Code in the reign of Josiah. But it is doubtful if even in the age of Isaiah the maηηηbβ in this sense could have had positive value as an adjunct of Jehovah’s worship. The word is probably used in the general sense of a memorial pillar, and may have been suggested by the huge monoliths which were so characteristic of Egyptian civilisation. This one stands on the frontier of Egypt, as a sign to every one entering the country that Jehovah is known there.

In that day shall there be an altar - An “altar” is properly a place on which sacrifices are offered. According to the Mosaic law, but one great altar was to be erected for sacrifices.

19. Altar — The word “altar” literally supposes the offering of sacrifices. Here, however, its meaning may have the confined sense of memorial, a memorial of the conversion of the Egyptians to the true religion.