Isaiah 19

His great power in destroying His enemies, and His greater love for His people in their protection. It now remained to make the utmost capital out of those displays of His glory by means of their moral impression on the wakened sympathies and eager minds of the great African kingdoms. H. C.

1. The wings, a dual word, are a natural figure for Egypt and Ethiopia, united at this very time, under So and Tirhakah, into a double power, protecting or overshadowing with its greatness the lands on either side. This Ethiopian dynasty in Egypt was a rare exception to its long series of native Pharaohs. It lasted (Herod., Manetho) about fifty years, and began seven or eight years only before the date of these burdens. Birks.

2. These must be the words of the prophet himself. The ambassadors have come to him to learn the news respecting the fall of the Assyrians. He now gives them their message to carry home. “Go,” says he, “ye swift messengers” (travelling so rapidly on those light-running boats), go back to your own people—“to a nation,” not “trodden down,” but a nation of down-treading people; treading down others; of all-crushing power. Whose land the rivers intersect—i.e., whose land is cut in all directions by the head-waters of the Nile. The entire description represents this to be a nation of great power and prowess in arms.

3. In the construction of this verse the choice lies between applying it to the Assyrian hosts preparing for their assault upon God’s people, or to God’s hosts preparing to annihilate them. The general sense is not materially affected by this choice, since in either case the attention of the wide world is called to witness the same grand scene. But inasmuch as God’s agency in this event is specially described in verses 4-6, I incline to refer this verse 3 specially to the Assyrian. On this construction the Lord proclaims, Let all the world look and see this proud Assyrian lifting up his banner on the mountains over against My holy city, and blowing his trumpet to summon his squadrons to the final charge. H. C.

4. For thus said (or saith) Jehovah to me, I will rest (remain quiet), and will look on in my dwelling-place. This verse assigns a reason for the preceding invitation to attend. The obvious meaning of the figure is, that God would let the enemy proceed in the execution of His purposes until they were nearly accomplished.

5. The obvious meaning of the figures is, that although God would suffer the designs of the enemy to approach completion, He would nevertheless interfere at the last moment and destroy both him and them. As if He had said, Let all the world await the great catastrophe—for I will let the enemy almost attain his end—but let them still attend—for before it is attained, I will destroy him.

7. All are agreed that we have here the prediction of an act of homage to Jehovah, occasioned by the great event described in the preceding verses. A.—An offering shall yet come from those far distant lands, high up around the head-waters of the Nile, to His own holy temple on Mount Zion. Nor is this a solitary case. It is rather an illustrative case, developing a great principle or law of His moral reign on earth—viz., that every manifestation of Himself, and especially those that are great and signal, shall surely yield their glorious fruits in the moral conquest of the world to Jesus Immanuel. This particular case has already thrown forward some foreshadowings of its future fulfilment, in the scenes briefly sketched (Acts 8: 26-39), where the prime-minister of a celebrated queen of Ethiopia found Christ by the aid of Philip in the reading of this very Book of Isaiah, and went home to his country rejoicing. Also in the further fact that some vestiges of Christianity—traces of its earlier power and perhaps prophecies of its later—have lived in that remote and almost unknown land unto this day. Assuredly, Ethiopia shall yet stretch forth her hands unto God (Ps. 68: 31). H. C.

Chap. 19. This burden of Egypt contains, first, a warning, a political downfall and decay; and next, a promise of conversion to God’s service in later times. The main subject of the prophecy is the great change soon to pass over Egypt, when the ancient glory of the Pharaohs would completely die away, and be followed, first by a time of anarchy, next by the severe oppression of the Persian dynasty; and finally, by the renewed prosperity under the Ptolemies, and the dawnings of a purer faith, to be completed by the perfect triumphs of the gospel in later days. Birks.

One special reason for bringing before the Jews this prophecy respecting Egypt was to check their tendency to look to Egypt rather than to God alone for help against Assyria. Hence these strong views of her weakness and of her lack of wisdom. Yet another reason may probably have been to show them that their own Jehovah is really the God of all the nations, and has thoughts of ultimate mercy for them all, purposing in His own time to bring them all within the pale of His own spiritual kingdom. H. C.—Isaiah’s prophecies with respect to Egypt are almost entirely depreciatory and denunciatory. He is bent on showing that she is a power on whom no dependence can be wisely placed, in the hope that he may thereby prevent Hezekiah and his princes from contracting any alliance with the Egyptian monarch. G. R.

This chapter admits of a well-defined division into two parts, one of which contains threatenings (verses 1-17), and the other promises (verses 18-25). The first part may again be subdivided. In verses 1-4 the Egyptians are threatened with a penal visitation from Jehovah, with a downfall of their idols, with intestine commotions, with the disappointment of their superstitious hopes, and with subjection to hard masters. In verses 5-10 they are threatened with physical calamities, the drying up of their streams, the decay of vegetation, the loss of their fisheries, and the destruction of their manufactures. In verses 11-17 the wisdom of their wise men is converted into folly, the courage of their brave men into cowardice, industry universally suspended, and the people filled with dread of the anger of Jehovah. The second part may be also subdivided. In verses 18-21, the Egyptians are described as acknowledging the true God, in consequence of what they had suffered at His hand, and the deliverance which He had granted them. In verses 22-25 the same cause is described as leading to an intimate union between Egypt, Assyria and Israel, in the service of Jehovah, and the enjoyment of His favor. . . . The most correct view of the matter seems to be as follows. The prophet, wishing to announce to the Jews the decline and fall of that great heathen power in which they were so constantly disposed to trust (30:1; 31:1), describes the event under figures borrowed from the actual condition of Egypt. The prophet vividly portrays the fall of Egypt by describing the waters of the Nile as failing, its meadows withering, its fisheries ceasing, and the peculiar manufactures of the country expiring, the proverbial wisdom of the nation changed to folly, its courage to cowardice, its strength to weakness. So too in the second part, the introduction of the true religion, and its effect as well on the internal state as on the international relations of the different countries, is expressed by figures drawn from the civil and religious institutions of the old economy.

1. The burden of Egypt. Behold! Jehovah riding on a light cloud, and He comes into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt move at His presence, and the heart of Egypt melts within him. This verse describes God as the author of the judgments afterward detailed. His visible appearance on a cloud, and the personification of the idols, prepare the mind for a poetical description.

2. Egypt against Egypt involves an allusion to the internal divisions of the kingdom, or rather to the existence of contemporary kingdoms, referred to in the other clause. A.—It is a remarkable illustration of this prophecy to find, as we do, from an inscription of Piankhi-Merammon, that about B.C. 735 Egypt was divided up among no fewer than twenty-two princes, of whom four bore the title of “king,” and that a civil war raged among them for some considerable time. Briefly, it may be said that Egypt from about B.C. 735 to B.C. 650 suffered from a continued series of civil wars, which rendered her exceptionally weak, and caused her to fall an easy prey alternately to the Ethiopians and the Assyrians. G. R.

5-10. The decay of Egypt is described under the figure of a failing inundation of the Nile. In chap. 16:8, 9 the vine of Sibmah represents Moab itself, a country famous for its vineyards. Here, in like manner, the Nile, with its pastures, fisheries and manufactures, is made to represent the whole national life and prosperity of Egypt. The things named were main elements of the national wealth and power. But oppression and anarchy would lessen the benefit of prosperous seasons, and double the loss in years of scanty inundation. Thus an excessive and extreme wasting of the Nile becomes a striking emblem for the whole course of national decay. This explains the repeated mention, nine times in succession, of the flood, the waters and the river. Birks.

6. Reeds. Never had prophecy greater circumstances of improbability to overcome, and never was prediction more completely fulfilled, than in the case of the prophecy recorded here. The indispensable papyrus in the time of Isaiah flourished through the whole of the Thebaid, Heptanomos, and the Delta, as the three divisions of ancient Egypt were named. Of its utility no European reader can form an adequate idea. Stringent laws were established for its protection and cultivation, and from its first appearance to maturity the papyrus was considered to be under the special care of local deities; it was planted, tended and cut with an almost religious ceremonial. Adaptable for various uses, not only paper, cloth and brushes, but the roughest and most delicate manufactures were produced from it alike. Sails, cordage and baskets for shipping, sandals, hats, skirts, carpets, chairs and seats for domestic service were made of it. Men and animals fed upon the tender shoots. A syrup was obtained and medicine extracted from it. It formed the cradle of the Nubian baby; it decorated the canopy of Pharaoh’s throne; it was scattered in processions through the streets; it was painted on the houses; it was wrought in granite on the temples. The Egyptian ladies twined the living blossoms in their hair, or wore it in chains around their necks as an amulet. Princes, priests, and peasants offered it on the altar in commemoration of the dead. The papyrus was the plaything of the child and the sceptre of the god, the glory of the country, the staple of its commerce, and the hieroglyphic emblem of its name. By withholding the supply of the papyrus, Ptolemy Philadelphus was enabled to repress the formation of a rival library by the Pergamean kings; while, by opening the markets of the Delta, the poetry of Greece and the philosophy of Rome were transmitted throughout the whole of the then known world. Alas for the permanence of mundane glories! Thirty centuries of oppression, superstition and neglect have dried up the artificial lakes in which the plant was cultivated. The hot wind of the south and the sands of the desert have exterminated the lovely paper rush in the empire of the Pharaohs, and there is not a single indigenous papyrus in the whole of Egypt proper. A stream in Sicily and the marshes of Merom in Palestine alone contain the nearly extinct vegetable; and in the conservatories of London, Sion, and Kew, England actually possesses more living papyri than can now be found from Syene to Alexandria. Treasury.

8. Having described the effect of the drought on vegetation, he now describes its effect upon those classes of the people who were otherwise dependent on the river for subsistence. The multitude of fishes in the Nile, and of people engaged in catching them, is attested both by ancient and modern writers. A.

10. This verse sums up the whole description of Egypt’s political decay. The pillars or foundations, a word used once only beside (Ps. 11:3), may denote those pursuits of industry which were the mainstay and strength of the nation. These would be broken down, and all the traders and workmen, whose means of livelihood were gone, would grieve in soul at the affliction and ruin of the land.

12. Where are the wise counsellors, who should form one main part of this noble heritage? The mournful change from world-famous wisdom to folly would be God’s own judgment on an idolatrous land. When nations reject the words of God, their wisdom soon dies out, and turns to utter foolishness. Birks.

15. The figures of head and tail, branch and rush, are used, as in chap. 9:13, to denote all classes of society, or rather the extremes between which the others are included.

17. This verse relates not to the destruction of Sennacherib’s army in Judah, nor to the approach of the Assyrians from that quarter, nor to an attack upon Egypt by Judah itself, but to the new feelings which would be entertained by the Egyptians toward the God of the Jews and the true religion. Judah, in a political and military sense, might still appear contemptible; but in another aspect, and for other reasons, it would be an object of respect and even fear to the Egyptians. A.

18. One view which alone seems to rest on the things actually said in the text is that of Calvin—viz., that out of six cities of Egypt five shall learn of the true God and consecrate themselves to Him; but one shall be destroyed. This is assumed to indicate in general the proportion between those who are converted to God and those who perish in their sins. “Speaking the language of Canaan” means not necessarily that they learn and speak the Hebrew tongue, but that they use the language of Christian experience; of course in sincerity, to express the thoughts, purposes and affections of the Christian heart. At the same time there may be a tacit allusion to the fact that the earliest fulfilment of this prophecy came through the emigration of Jews into Egypt, bringing their own language, literally that of Canaan, and their sacred writings, God’s own inspired word. In the age of the Ptolemies, the Jews became quite numerous in Egypt. The well-known translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, was then made into Greek (as is said) by request of the Egyptian king. The moral condition of the Egyptians was improved by these agencies. Another stage of fulfilment occurred during the first six centuries of the Christian age, when large and flourishing churches abounded in Egypt. Yet a richer fulfilment remains to be realized. H. C.

Many Jews, after Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jerusalem, fled into Egypt, and carried along with them Jeremiah, who there uttered most of his prophecies concerning the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. From thence some knowledge of God and some notices of the prophecies might easily be derived to the Egyptians. Alexander transplanted many of the Jews into his new city, Alexandria; the first Ptolemy carried more; and his successors gave great encouragement to settlers, nor were the Jews less favored by many of the Syrian kings. Bp. Newton.

19. As we might now speak of a missionary pitching his tent at Hebron or at Shechem, without intending to describe the precise form of his habitation, so the prophet represents the converts to the true faith as erecting an altar and a pillar to the Lord in Egypt, as Abraham and Jacob did of old in Canaan. A still more exact illustration is afforded by the frequent use among ourselves of the word altar to denote the practice of devotion, especially in families.

20. If, as we have seen reason to believe, the chapter is a prophecy not of a single event, but of a great progressive change to be wrought in the condition of Egypt by the introduction of the true religion, the promise of the verse before us must be that when they cried God would send them a deliverer, a promise verified not once, but often, not by Ptolemy or Alexander only, but by others, and in the highest sense by Christ Himself. The assertion, that the meaning of the prophecy was exhausted by events before the advent, is as easily contradicted as advanced. It is admitted that the rise of Alexander’s power was contemporaneous with a great increase of Jewish population and Jewish influence in Egypt, and also with a great improvement in the social and political condition of the people. This was still more remarkably the case when Christianity was introduced, and who shall say what is yet to be witnessed and experienced in Egypt under the influence of this same gospel?

22. This verse may indeed be regarded as a recapitulation of the whole preceding prophecy, consisting as it does of an extended threatening (verses 1-17) followed by an ample promise (verses 18-21). As if he had said, Thus will God smite Egypt and then heal it. A.

23. The natural significance of a broad highway, a great international road, between Egypt and Assyria, passing through Israel, must be the most free and easy communication and the spirit of mutual fraternity. These nations are no longer foes as for ages past by, but friends—all one in the fellowship of Christian love. The people of each kingdom may pass freely to the other. The Egyptians will serve (God)

with the Assyrians (so the last clause must mean). H. C.

24. The meaning obviously is that Israel should be one of three, or a party to a triple union. In verse 25 the perfect union of the three great powers in the service of God and the enjoyment of His favor is expressed by a solemn benediction on the three, in which language commonly applied to Israel exclusively is extended to Egypt and Assyria. A.—They shall all be blessed of the Lord. They shall all be owned by Him as His. Though Egypt was formerly a house of bondage to the people of God, and Assyria an unjust invader of them, all this shall now be forgiven and forgotten, and they shall be as welcome to God as Israel. They are all alike His people, whom He takes under His protection; they are formed by Him, for they are “the work of His hands;” not only as a people, but as His people. They are formed for Him, for they are His inheritance, precious in His eyes, and dear to Him, and from whom He has His rent of honor out of this lower world. They shall be owned together by Him as jointly His; His in concert; they shall all share in one and the same blessing. Those that are united in the love and blessing of God ought, for that reason, to be united to each other in charity. H.

This broad outlook of prophecy encompasses the world, and stretches forward into times then far remote. The Assyria of that age has long since passed away; but other nations have come upon her ancient soil and elsewhere in populous Asia—e.g., the Armenians and Parthians of the early Christian ages, and others in modern and yet future times, to take her place and stand forward to receive this blessing which the Lord announced in her name. The Egypt too of that age has gone down very low, and long since ceased to be a great political power among the nations. But Egypt fitly represents Africa. In that continent there are still myriads of human souls sitting in darkness to whom the blessings of the great Messiah must yet come. Looking deeper than the mere costume and drapery of this prophecy, even to its inner spirit, we shall see in it that the old antipathies of belligerent nations who had kept the world in a flame with their wars for more than a thousand years must give place to the freest intercommunication; the most cordial and fraternal fellowship; the hearty and universal service of the living God. This change having come over them, they are joyfully recognized by the great God as being all His own beloved and honored people! Let us

bless the name of God for such gleams of light upon the prophetic future of our long-time sin-worn and wasted world! H. C.