Isaiah 20

1. Ashdod. Ashdod, now Esdud, one of the five cities of the Philistines (see Josh. xv. 46, 47; 1 Sam. v. 1, the Azotus of Acts viii. 40), was the key to Egypt on the side of Palestine; it was therefore strongly fortified, and was frequently attacked in the wars between Egypt and Assyria. Herodotus says that it sustained a siege of twenty-nine years by Psammetichus, king of Egypt.

Sargon. This king (Sar-ukin, “He established the king”), whose name occurs only here in the Bible, is frequently mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions; which for the first time enable us to understand many historical facts and allusions of Scripture. To several of these the notes on following chapters will call attention (see especially xxi., xxii., xxxvii.). Sargon usurped the Assyrian throne on the death of Shalmaneser IV. At the time of his accession (722 B.C.) the siege of Samaria, begun by Shalmaneser, was in progress; and it was Sargon by whom the city was overthrown and its inhabitants deported (2 Kings xvii. 6). His reign, which was marked by much military prowess, continued for seventeen years, and he was succeeded by his son Sennacherib, 705 B.C. The “year in which the Tartan (title of the Assyrian commander-in-chief) came to Ashdod” seems to have been 711 B.C., when Sargon sent an expedition to the city to subdue a rebellion against the uncertainty of Assyria: see Sayce’s Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments, pp. 111, 112; and Budge: Babylonian Life and History (1925), pp. 37, 104.

2 naked. That is, without the mantle of “sack-cloth” which prophets usually wore: see 1 Sam. xix. 23, 24.

3 three years. That is, either at intervals during that time; or (connecting the words, as in the Hebrew text, with what follows rather than with what precedes), for a three years’ sign and wonder (see R.V. and marg.).

5 they shall be afraid. Those Jews who expected help from Egypt and Ethiopia.

6 this Isle. Rather, “coast-land” (R.V.); referring to Palestine, which lay along the coast, here called “this coast,” to distinguish it from Egypt, mentioned just before.