A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 18: The Burdens of Captivity

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 18: The Burdens of Captivity

In our most recent commentaries for Isaiah, presenting chapters 16 and 17 we had discussed the fact that the burdens which the prophet had for Moab and Damascus had actually addressed the Israelites who were settled in the ancient lands of Moab and Damascus. Then as we had progressed through each of these burdens, it had become more and more apparent that they had actually been for Israelites. 

For example, in Isaiah chapter 16 where there is a promise of mercy, we read: “5 And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness”, and all of the cities of Moab which had been named in that chapter were cities in Moab that had been occupied by the children of Israel from the days of Moses and Joshua, for roughly 700 years. 

Then, in chapter 17, in verse 10 we read in part: “10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips”, and it is clear that since Yahweh was the God of Israel and was only known by Israel in that sense, the words of the prophet had addressed Israelites in Damascus, and not merely Syrians who never knew Yahweh so that they could have forgotten Him. 

Likewise it shall be here, in Isaiah chapter 18, that the words of the prophet are addressing at least a portion of the Israelites in captivity, and in chapter 19, while Egypt is a subject of the Burden of Egypt prophecy in the immediate sense of the prophet, which is the near vision, in the far vision Egypt stands an allegory for the captivity of Israel, and a portion of Israel is being addressed as Egypt. 

But as soon as chapter 18 opens, there is a statement which may cause much confusion in the minds of modern Christians, who typically have a wrong impression of the meaning of the word Ethiopia. In the first verse of the chapter we read:

1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: 

The phrase translated as “shadowing with wings” here is more accurately “whirring wings”, as it is in the New American Standard Bible, or “rustling with wings”, as it is in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. Oddly, as Brenton had translated the passage, the Septuagint has this verse to read “Woe to you, ye wings of the land of ships, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” But there is little support for this reading. In fact, many readings found in this chapter in the Septuagint are quite peculiar, and for the most part, we shall ignore them. 

The Old Latin of this passage presented by Origen in his Hexapla has “Hey! the land of the whirring wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” The Latin of Jerome, which is the Vulgate, has “Woe to the land of the winged cymbal that is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” In a footnote in Field’s edition of the Hexapla, there was provided a note made by Jerome and cited from the Vulgate which referenced Aquila’s translation here as an alternative to that of his own. According to the Hexapla, the Early Greek translation of Aquila of Sinope has “shadow of wings” and that of Symmachus has “sound of wings”. So the Septuagint reading is peculiar, however in any event the description of the land remains obscure, although the location of the land should not be obscure, and it is not in Africa. 

The word rendered as Ethiopia is the Hebrew word כושׁ or Cush (# 3568), the name of the eldest son of Ham. But as we had discussed at length in our recent Genesis commentary on The Hamites, Ethiopia was the name that the Greeks had used for Cush, and the early Greek writers had described two lands of Ethiopia, one in the east, in or beyond Mesopotamia, and one to the south of Egypt. In Greek legend, Memnon, king of the Ethiopians of the East and a son of one of the kings of the Trojans, had assisted Priam after the death of Hector [Britannica, Memnon]. According to Homer in the Iliad Memnon was the legendary founder of Susa, the city which later became capital city of the Persians, and Herodotus also mentioned this in Book 5 of his Histories [5.53-54]. Only some later writers confused Memnon’s Ethiopia, or Cush, for the Ethiopia in Africa, but it should not be confused in that manner. 

In that same presentation we had also explained that, as it is described in Genesis chapter 10, Nimrod was a son of Cush, and the beginning of his kingdom was in several cities of Mesopotamia, which is adjacent to Arabia. So it is readily evident that the first land of Cush must have consisted of at least portions of Mesopotamia and adjoining Arabia. In Habakkuk chapter 3, it is evident that there was a district called Cushan near Midian in Arabia, where in a prophecy including other places in Arabia, we read in part “7 I saw the tents of Cushan under distress, The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.” It is quite evident in Scriptures, especially in the time of Moses and Joshua, that Midian and Cushan were places in Arabia, and it was from there in the land of Cush that Moses had taken his wife, Zipporah, whose father was described as a priest of Midian. 

Evidently, kings of Cush had sought to exert authority over the lands to the west as late as the early years of the Judges period. There we read in Judges chapter 3: “7 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves. 8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years. 9 And when the children of Israel cried unto 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. 10 And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD delivered Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushanrishathaim.”

The word Chushanrishathaim means Twice-wicked Cushan and it seems to be an epithet for a Kassite king, since the Kassites had dominated Mesopotamia from the fall of the first Babylonian empire in the 16th century BC, and maintained control until the middle of the 12th century BC, when they had been conquered by Elamites from the east. The events of Judges chapter 3, where we see a king of Cush from Mesopotamia attempting to extend his empire, would have been in the middle of that period, or the early 14th century BC. 

Therefore the Biblical accounts fully establish the fact that there was a land of Cush in Mesopotamia and Arabia, from the time of Cush, the son of Ham, and his own son Nimrod, through the period of the Judges and all the way down to the time of the prophet Habakkuk, who had prophesied in the days of Josiah, who was the king of Judah from about 640 to 608 BC. So when Moses described the rivers of Eden, in Genesis chapter 2 where he wrote that “the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia”, being mentioned along with other rivers in the vicinity of Mesopotamia, the land of Cush in the Near East, and not in Africa, was the land which the Gihon river had compassed. The Gihon River seems to be a reference to the modern Karun River, which empties into the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers from the east, before they flow into the Persian Gulf. 

Cush, having been in Mesopotamia and Arabia, here it is describing some land which was beyond Mesopotamia and Arabia, from the perspective of Judah, which is the subject here. In the words of the prophet Zephaniah, who also lived and prophesied in the days of Josiah king of Judah, we read, in Zephaniah chapter 3: “10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.” So Israelites, the daughter of Yahweh’s dispersed, would make supplication to Yahweh from a land beyond Mesopotamia and Arabia.

In the Persian period, it is evident that the Sakae, or Scythians, were distributed in, or perhaps they had spread themselves into, several areas around the Black and Caspian Seas, and not only in the cities of the Medes. In his description of the Persian armies which had invaded Greece in the time of Xerxes, Herodotus had written that the Sogdians were grouped with the Parthians, and the Sakae with the Bactrians. [Herodotus, The Histories, Book 7, paragraphs 64 to 66.] 

From Strabo of Cappadocia, the Greek geographer of the early 1st century AD, we read: “The Sacæ had made incursions similar to those of the Cimmerians and Treres, some near their own country, others at a greater distance. They occupied Bactriana, and got possession of the most fertile tract in Armenia, which was called after their own name, Sacasene. They advanced even as far as the Cappadocians, those particularly situated near the Euxine; who are now called Pontici.” [Geography, 11.8.4.] 

Then a little further on in that same chapter, where Strabo was citing Eratosthenes, a geographer of the 3rd century BC, we read: “The Attasii (Augasii?) and the Chorasmii belong to the Massagetæ and Sacæ, to whom Spitamenes directed his flight from Bactria and Sogdiana. He was one of the Persians who, like Bessus, made his escape from Alexander by flight, as Arsaces afterwards fled from Seleucus Callinicus, and retreated among the Aspasiacæ. Eratosthenes says, that the Bactrians lie along the Arachoti and Massagetæ on the west near the Oxus, and that Sacæ and Sogdiani, through the whole extent of their territory, are opposite to India, but the Bactrii in part only, for the greater part of their country lies parallel to the Parapomisus; that the Sacæ and Sogdiani are separated by the Iaxartes, and the Sogdiani and Bactriani by the Oxus; that Tapyri occupy the country between Hyrcani and Arii; that around the shores of the sea, next to the Hyrcani, are Amardi, Anariacæ, Cadusii, Albani, Caspii, Vitii, and perhaps other tribes extending as far as the Scythians; that on the other side of the Hyrcani are Derbices, that the Caducii are contiguous both to the Medes and Matiani below the Parachoathras.” [Geography, 11.8.8.]

So we see that by the 3rd century BC, the Sacae, or Scythians, had divided themselves into many other regional or tribal factions. In similar fashion, later historians such as Procopius, explained that the Goths and the Huns had both come from the Massagetae. All of these had dwelt beyond the rivers of Cush, and they were all descended from the ancient Kimmerians, or Bit Khumri, of the Assyrian deportations of Israel, whom the Persians had called Sakae. The phrase “beyond the rivers of Ethiopia” describes a land, from the perspective of ancient Judah, which is beyond the Euphrates, Tigris and Karun rivers, and could describe any land from as far west as ancient Media, around the Caspian Sea and in areas further to the east of that sea. The Israelites were indeed deported to many places around the Caspian Sea as well as to the region of the Caucasus Mountains and ancient Armenia and Media to the north of Mesopotamia. So they were in many places beyond the rivers of ancient Cush. 

Now, speaking of these people in the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush: 

2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled! 

The Hebrew word translated as bulrushes here is גמא or goma (# 1573), and in some translations it is papyrus, which suggests a location in Africa. However the word generally means only reed or rush, as it is translated elsewhere, and as a verb it is defined as absorb or drink. While papyrus is a type of reed, and while the Egyptians did commonly make boats out of papyrus, there are other types of reed which have been used in the making of boats in ancient times in Mesopotamia, Persia, India and East Asia, and even in Central America. 

The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has the later portion of this verse to read: “… saying, Go, swift messengers, to a tall and handsome nation, to a people that were frightening from their very beginning, a nation that metes out and tramples, whose land is divided by the rivers!” The reading here is similar where the same clause is repeated in verse 7 of this chapter. But on account of the context, and the literal meaning of some of the words, we would translate this same passage to read: “… Go, swift messengers, to a nation dragged off and stripped bare, to a people dreadful from the beginning onward, a nation measured out and trampled down, whose land is divided by the rivers.”

The word divided may also have been rendered as cut through, and this could indeed be a description of what was to happen to the children of Israel in the Assyrian and later Babylonian deportations. The people were taken away, or dragged off, they were stripped bare of whatever wealth they had once possessed, and their land was cut through by the floods of the enemies, which was described in that manner in Isaiah in chapter 8 where we read: “7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks.” So the Assyrians and armies from their subject nations would be the rivers which had cut through the land of Israel, and that is what I am persuaded that Isaiah is describing here. The children of Israel had seen the Assyrian cut through their land, take them away, strip them clean, and resettle them beyond the rivers of Cush.

So Yahweh, who had announced in those earlier chapters of Isaiah that this fate would come upon Israel, is now portrayed as having contemplated His works, even if they are not quite complete by the time when Isaiah had recorded this chapter:

3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. 4 For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. 

In an earlier prophecy of Israel in captivity, we read in Isaiah chapter 5 where Israel had been described as the vineyard of Yahweh: “7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.” For the sins of the people, Yahweh had warned them: “ 5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” So these are the works from which Yahweh rests here.

So here, once again, Yahweh is informing us what would become of His vineyard:

5 For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches. 6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. 

However with all that, there is still a message of hope:

7 In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled [a nation dragged off and stripped bare], and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto [a people dreadful from the beginning onward]; a nation meted out and trodden under foot [a nation measured out and trampled down], whose land the rivers have spoiled [whose land is divided by the rivers], to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion. 

That present was brought to the “place of the name of Yahweh of hosts, the mount Zion”, when the Germanic tribes had accepted the Christian Gospel of Reconciliation and returned to Yahweh their God in Christ. 

This concludes our commentary for Isaiah chapter 18, and now we shall proceed with chapter 19, where the focus shifts to Egypt. Quite frequently, Egypt is an allegory for captivity in the prophets. But here in the near vision, the references to Egypt seem to be literal, while in the far vision, in the later portion of this burden, the references to Egypt seem to represent the children of Israel in captivity, or at least a significant portion of them, for reasons which we hope to elucidate. 

19:1 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. 2 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, and kingdom against kingdom. 

The Septuagint has verse 2 to end “… city against city, and law against law”, contrary to all of our other sources. 

3 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. 

In the time of Isaiah, as he had recorded these prophecies and announced them before the people of Judah and Jerusalem, this would have served as a warning, not to turn to the Egyptians for relief from the invading Assyrians. At this point in the ministry of Isaiah, Ahaz had died, as we read at the end of chapter 14 where this series of burdens had begun, and Hezekiah his son would ascend to the throne. So although Isaiah does not mention Hezekiah by name until the fourteenth year of his reign, here Hezekiah is king and we can certainly assume that he had heard this warning.

But in the later days of Hezekiah, the king ignored this warning. While the Assyrian armies were at Lachish, in the process of conquering and taking captive forty-six fenced cities of Judah, they had also agreed to put Hezekiah and Jerusalem under tribute, which is recorded in 2 Kings chapter 18. But then they found that Hezekiah was untrustworthy, and that he had sought assistance from Egypt. So the king of Assyria sent his officers to speak to the officers of Hezekiah at the wall of Jerusalem where we read in part: “19 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? 20 Thou sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me? 21 Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.” Some time before Samaria was destroyed, Hoshea king of Israel had also solicited the help of the Pharaoh of Egypt against the Assyrians, an act which had precipitated the destruction of Samaria, as it is recorded in 2 Kings chapter 17. 

So the warning concerning Egypt continues, which, if Hezekiah had observed, he would not have trusted in Egypt:

Kushite_Pharaoh_Taharqa_Louvre_Museum

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4 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. 5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. 6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither. 7 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 more. 8 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. 9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded. 10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish. 

Rather than “...all that make sluices and ponds for fish”, the Septuagint has “and all that make beer shall be grieved, and be pained in their souls.” Again, there is no support for that reading in other versions. The text underlying the King James Version does not seem to support its translation, where the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible reads “… all who work for wages will be sick at heart.” Likewise, the New American Standard Bible has the end of the verse to read “… All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.” However the Latin Vulgate agrees with the King James translation, which has “… all they shall mourn that made pools to take fishes.” The confusion, at least in part, is found in the verb אגמ or agem (# 99) which in its various related forms was used to describe a pool, marsh or swamp, and Strong’s has “in the sense of stagnant water” and then adds “figuratively, sad” to the definition. However there is nothing in the underlying Hebrew concerning fish, or beer. 

All of this warning indicates a collapse of Egyptian society under the rule of a “cruel lord”. The fulfillment of these words is most likely found to have begun in the so-called 25th Dynasty of Egypt, which was a line of Kushite kings who had conquered the Egyptians and ruled over Egypt as pharaohs. This period of Egyptian history is debated among academic historians and archaeologists, and some date it to begin around 728 BC, but others date it to have begun nearly 20, or even nearly 30 years earlier. We would prefer the later date, although the process of consolidating Kushite rule may have already begun by this time. 

Many sources identify the Kushite dynasty as a Nubian dynasty, however the original Kushites had come to Africa from Mesopotamia, and they were not Negros, as the Nubians had been. Rather, it is likely that the Kushites either allied themselves with Nubians, or that they had subjected them and ruled over them. In any event, the surviving statues of the Kushite rulers of Egypt do not portray Negros, but there certainly seems to have been at least many Negros who had participated in the invasion of Egypt. 

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Later, in the time of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, who ruled Assyria from about 681 to 669 BC, with great effort Egypt was subjected to the Assyrians, although the king failed to conquer Ethiopia or drive the Kushites and Nubians from Upper Egypt. Lower Egypt was secured by his son and successor, Ashurbanipal, who appointed a vassal as Pharaoh, Necho I, who had been the ruler of Sais in the Delta, thus establishing the 26th Dynasty. Under that dynasty Egypt was once again unified under Egyptian rule until its later conquest by the Persians. 

Continuing with the warning concerning Egypt:

11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? 12 Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt. 13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. 

The Hebrew name צען or Zoan (# 6814) is not defined by Strong’s, Gesenius, or Brown, Driver, Briggs, but it is identical in spelling with a word that means migrate, and a plural form of a noun which means removals. So as a name for a city it is appropriately defined in later lexicons as “place of departure”. Zoan was called Tanis by the Greeks, and was situated on one of the Nile branches in the Delta. There is a parenthetical remark in Numbers chapter 13 that reads “22 … Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.” So Zoan was a very old city.

The Hebrew name may be attributed to the Exodus, since the city is only mentioned in that remark in Numbers, and not again until this passage in Isaiah, and then in the 78th Psalm, which is attributed to Asaph, a prophet of the captivity. There we read, where it speaks in reference to the Exodus: “12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.” A little further on in the Psalm there is another mention: “42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. 43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.”

Likewise, the name Noph only appears in Scripture in the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. This city is identified with ancient Memphis, a Greek name, and it was situated on the Nile River a short distance south of the Delta. West of the city are the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, and it is adjacent to modern Cairo. While the Hebrew word נף or Noph (# 5297) is undefined, there is a longer word, נפג or nopheg (# 5298), which Strong’s defines as being “from an unused root probably meaning to spring forth; a sprout”. While there are other candidates for the meaning of Noph, this seems relevant to our discussion. Perhaps these two cities in the Delta were singled out here for the meanings of their names, as they were the point of departure for Israel, from which Israel had sprung forth into the exodus out of Egypt. 

14 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 man staggereth in his vomit. 15 Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do. 16 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. 

From the time of the Assyrian conquest of Egypt, only six rulers of the native 26th Dynasty had governed Egypt for about 140 years, before it was once again conquered by the Persians. From that time Egypt was no more, as it fell from Persian rule to the Macedonians, and then to the Romans, where it was ruled by Byzantium until it was overrun by the Mohammedans. However before the Persians, the Babylonians had waged military campaigns in Egypt, where several cities were laid to waste, and while the Babylonians did not conquer Egypt, Egypt certainly was “delivered into the hand of the people of the north”, as Jeremiah had also prophesied (Jeremiah 46:24).

So it is evidently in relation to that event concerning the Babylonians that we now read in Isaiah:

17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it. 

Just a few years after the fall of Assyria, the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II had conducted a military campaign in the Levant, in an attempt to regain Carchemish and the Levant for the Egyptians. So sometime around 608 BC, as Necho had passed with his armies through Palestine, Josiah king of Judah had intercepted him at Megiddo, seeking to prevent him and turn him back. This is the only battle in which Josiah had engaged, and he died in battle at Megiddo, after having ruled Judah for 38 years. The battle was later also recorded by Herodotus, where he had called the people of Judah the “Syrians of Palestine”. 

So concerning the death of Josiah and its aftermath, we read in 2 Kings chapter 23: “ 29 In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. 30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead. 31 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh.”

However Egyptian rule over Judah was short-lived, and upon the ascension of Nebuchadnezzar to the throne of Babylon in 605 BC, the Babylonians began asserting their own rule over Palestine. So in the final verse of 2 Kings chapter 23 we read that Jehoiakim, who was made king by Pharaoh Necho, would rule Judah for eleven years, and then in the opening verse of 2 Kings chapter 24, “1 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him.” Then a little further on in the chapter: “7 And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land: for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt.” This must be the result of the terror which is described at this point in Isaiah. 

Earlier in Isaiah Yahweh had announced His determination against Judah, and while its fulfillment began in the days of Sennacherib, where most of Judah was taken into Assyrian captivity, Jerusalem remained until it was destroyed by the Babylonians. Therefore, witnessing what had become of Judah in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, the Egyptians must have been terrified when Jerusalem was destroyed. They were evidently already in fear even before Jerusalem was destroyed, as it is described in 2 Kings. So the Egyptians were well aware of what had transpired in Judah, and they had been involved in the politics of Jerusalem up to this point when they no longer challenged Babylon in the Levant. 

Now where Isaiah continues, he seems to forebode events in Egypt which are related to the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem:

18 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. 

It is described in Jeremiah chapters 41 through 43 that many Israelites of Judah had fled into Egypt even though they had been warned not to do so. Jeremiah himself had been caught up in the move to Egypt, under circumstances which he could not control, and in chapter 42 he is recorded as having advised the men into whose hands he had been committed not to go to Egypt. But in chapter 43 they rejected his counsel and they went to Egypt in spite of Jeremiah’s warning. So we read, in part, in Jeremiah chapter 43: “8 Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, 9 Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brick kiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; 10 And say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them. 11 And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword. 12 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace. 13 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.”

Then further on, in Jeremiah chapter 44, the opening verses account for the five cities in Egypt which would speak the language of Canaan: “1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the [Judahites] which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, 2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein, 3 Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers. 4 Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. 5 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. 6 Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day. 7 Therefore now thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain; 8 In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers. 11 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah. 12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. 13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: 14 So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as shall escape.”

So this was the fate of those of Judah who had escaped to Egypt, and this is also the fate of the five cities in Egypt which had spoken the language of Canaan, the fulfillment of which we must associate with those events described in Jeremiah, about a hundred and fifty years after Isaiah had written these words.

Here there seems to be a change in the focus of the prophecy, from the near-vision fulfillment to a far-vision allegory. 

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. 20 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. 

The early British-Israel and Christian Identity commentators had related this altar and pillar to the Great Pyramid of Giza, which British-Israel writers had also romanticized. These interpretations we must reject, since none of those monuments of ancient Egypt were ever built to be dedicated to Yahweh. Furthermore, the law itself forbids the erecting of pillars for religious purposes, in Deuteronomy chapter 16 where we read: “22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.” The word translated as image in that verse is מצבה or matsebah (# 4676), which is properly a column, a pillar or a stump. 

In the far vision, the last altar required by Yahweh God for the purpose of sacrifice is the cross of Christ, and having lived and died as a man for the sake of Israel, He is also a pillar, the Pillar of Christian society found in the lost sheep of the house of Israel to this very day. So in this vision, we would also assert that Israel is represented as Egypt, having been in captivity. 

That Egypt is an allegory for captivity is readily evident in the words of Hosea, who was a prophet who was contemporary to Isaiah, in Hosea chapter 9: “1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor. 2 The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. 3 They shall not dwell in the LORD'S land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.” Of course, Ephraim did not return physically to the land of Egypt, but was taken and resettled in the north, however Ephraim did return to Egypt allegorically, to Egypt as a metaphor for captivity. 

Understanding that the altar and the pillar are Christ and His sacrifice, on the metaphorical borders of the captivity of Israel, we may understand the balance of this prophecy of the burden of Egypt in that same manner:

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; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it. 22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them. 

That Egypt here is an allegory for Israel in captivity should be evident in the words of another prophet who was contemporary with Isaiah, the prophet Amos, in Amos chapter 3: “1 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

That punishment, and the promised reconciliation in Christ, are the smiting and the healing of Egypt here, which may also be evident in the words of Hosea, first in Hosea chapter 11: “1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” Then, in Hosea chapter 12: “12 And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. 13 And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.” 

Much later, in the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, it is evident that Israel is indeed in the captivity of Egypt, where we read in Revelation chapter 11 where it speaks of the two witnesses: “3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. 4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. 7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” Christ was not crucified in Egypt literally, but metaphorically, since Israel was in captivity. Therefore He is the pillar at the border of Egypt, and His cross is the altar in the midst of Egypt. 

Now there is another allegory which can only relate to a far-vision fulfillment:

23 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. 

There were Israelites in Egypt, who departed from Egypt by sea, and therefore they were never in the Exodus with Moses, nor did they receive the law at Sinai. So they were never afforded the opportunity of entering into the rest of Yahweh, which the children of Israel had been offered in the days of Joshua. The 1st century BC Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, citing an even earlier historian named Hecataeus of Abdera, a Greek historian and skeptic philosopher of the 4th century BC, repeated his account of the Israelite Exodus from an ostensibly Egyptian viewpoint, where he wrote that “the aliens were driven from the country, and the most outstanding and active among them banded together and, as some say, were cast ashore in Greece and certain other regions; their leaders were notable men, chief among them being Danaus and Cadmus. But the greater number were driven into what is now called Judaea ... The colony was headed by a man called Moses, outstanding both for his wisdom and for his courage” (Library of History, 40.3.1-3). 

Ostensibly, as we can tell from later history, among those Israelites who had left Egypt by sea were the Trojans, the Danaan Greeks, and at least some from among those who had become the northern tribes in Israel, whom the Greeks had later called Phoenicians. In other early Greek writings, Danaus is frequently called by the epithet “Danaus the Egyptian”, and Cadmus is likewise called “Cadmus the Phoenician”, while here the Greeks writers had accepted the understanding that those men were of the same Israelites who did go with Moses. Since the Romans had been descended chiefly from the Trojans, Paul referred to them as wild olives, in his epistle to the Romans, as compared to the cultivated olives which had been raised with the laws of Sinai. But speaking to Galatians, who had descended from the Israelites of the Assyrian captivity, Paul told them that they had been under the law, and that the law was their schoolmaster, to bring them to Christ. 

So for those reasons, we would assert that here Egypt represents the Israelites who never really came out of the Egyptian captivity, and Assyria represents the Israelites who would go into the Assyrian captivity, while although they are all Israelites, Israel here represents Israelites who were given the laws of Moses, but did not go back into captivity to Babylon or Assyria. This being the far vision, this aspect of Isaiah’s prophecy is not yet fulfilled, and it evidently shall not be fulfilled until the ultimate return of Christ. Thus we read in the closing verses of the chapter:

24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: 25 Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. 

In Isaiah chapter 11 there is a similar prophecy: “11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.” It is not that His people Israel have remained in any of those places, and today they are all overrun with other races. But these are the places to which most of Israel had been taken in the early stages of their captivity, even if they did not remain in them. Then, further on in that same chapter of Isaiah: “16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” 

We may say that such a highway had brought the children of Israel from the Assyrian captivities into Europe, where they were reconciled with the Israelites who had left Egypt and settled in Europe, and where they were ultimately all reconciled to Yahweh their God as Christians. However we would not assert that the final purpose of the prophecy has been completely fulfilled even in this present time. 

In any event, the prophecies of these burdens of the land shadowing with wings, as the King James Version has it, and the burden of Egypt, are prophecies of burdens of captivity upon the children of Israel, first those who had gone into captivity in Assyria, and here, those who had been in the captivity of Egypt. The burden upon Egypt results in the eventual restoration of Israel, but there is no hope in that for the Egyptians themselves. In fact, in Isaiah chapter 43, Yahweh announced to the children of Israel in captivity: “3 For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. 4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.” Even if the Kushite pharaohs were not Negros, eventually all of Kush and Egypt had become mingled with Negros, since they had been given up by Yahweh for the sake of the children of Israel.

The burden of Egypt is also a type for the destruction of captivity, of Sodom and Egypt, which is inevitable in the Revelation of Yahshua Christ. 

This concludes our commentary on Isaiah through chapter 19.