The confusion of Egypt, 1-10. The foolishness of their princes, 11-17. The calling of Egypt into the church, 18-22. The covenant of Egypt, Assyria, and Israel, 23-25.
1 [The burden of Egypt.]
"Behold, the LORD rides upon a swift cloud/
and will 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.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians,/
and each shall fight against his brother/
and each against his neighbor,/
city against city and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst of her,/
and I will destroy her counsel./
And they shall seek the idols, the charmers,/
those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.
4 And I will give the Egyptians over/
into the hand of a cruel lord./
And a fierce king shall rule over them,"/
says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea/
and the rivers shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And they shall turn the rivers far away,/
and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up./
The reeds and rushes shall wither.
7 The paper-reeds by the brooks,/
by the mouth of the brooks,/
and everything sown by the brooks/
shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishermen shall also mourn,/
all those who cast a hook into the brooks shall lament,/
and those who spread nets upon the waters shall languish.
9 Moreover, those who work in fine flax/
and those who weave net-works shall be confounded.
10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof,/
all who make sluices and ponds for fish.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools./
The counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh has become brutish./
How do you say to Pharaoh, "I am the son of the wise,/
the son of ancient kings"?
12 Where are they? Where are your wise men?/
And let them tell you now,/
and let them know what the LORD of hosts/
has purposed upon Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools,/
the princes of Noph are deceived./
They have also seduced Egypt,/
even those who are the support of its tribes.
14 The LORD has mingled a perverse spirit in the midst of it./
And they have caused Egypt to err in every work of it,/
as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 There shall not be any work for Egypt/
which the head or tail, branch or rush, may perform.
16 In that day Egypt shall be like women, and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shakes over it. 17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror to Egypt. Everyone who makes mention of it shall be afraid in himself because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he has determined against it.
18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan and swear to the LORD of hosts. One shall be called, The City of Destruction.
19 In that day there shall be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar at its border to the LORD. 20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they shall cry to the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a savior, and a great one, and he shall deliver them. 21 And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day and shall do sacrifice and oblation. They shall even vow a vow to the LORD and perform it. 22 And the LORD will smite Egypt. He will smite and heal it. And they shall return even to the LORD, and he will be entreated by them and will heal them.
23 In that day there shall be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, 25 Whom the LORD of hosts will bless, saying, "Blessed is Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."
Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 19[➚]