Isaiah 19:25

Centuries earlier, God had promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would one day come to know Abraham’s God and Abraham’s people (see Genesis 12:1-3).

Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible. In the original language, God’s names mean ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
Egyptian ~ a person from the country called Egypt, or anything that has a relationship with the country called Egypt.
idol ~ home-made image of a god.
altar ~ special stone where priests burned animals as gifts to God, or to a false god.
Assyrian ~ a person from the country called Assyria; or anything that has a relationship with the country called Assyria.
Jews ~ people who belong to the countries called Judah and Israel; people who belong to the 12 tribes of Israel.
tribe ~ a group of the later family of one father.
worship ~ to praise God and to pray to him.'

Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

Countries near Judah

Isaiah Chapter s 13 to 23

Gordon Churchyard

The words in brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language.

Chapter 19

A message about Egypt and Cush

Note

Read Chapter s 19 and 20 together. Some Bible students say that we should read Chapter s 18, 19 and 20 together. That is because chapter 18 is also about a place called Cush. It may have been the same place as in chapter 19 and 20. But there were two places called Cush at that time. Here Cush was a country near to Egypt. Cush’s people ruled Egypt for a time when Isaiah was alive.

There are five messages in these two Chapter s:

1) 19:1-4 – There will be internal war in Egypt. It means that the people in Egypt will fight against each other.

2) 19:5-10 – The Nile river will become dry. It means that there will be no work, food or clothes in Egypt. Today we call that economic failure.

3) 19:11-15 – The wise men in Egypt will become stupid. Or they already are stupid.

4) 19:16-25 – The people in Egypt and Assyria will serve Judah’s *LORD.

5) 20:1-6 – Assyria’s army will defeat the armies of Egypt and Cush.

In these Chapter s, Isaiah warns Judah’s people. This is what he warns them: ‘Assyria’s army will defeat Egypt. So do not go together with Egypt’s army to fight against Assyria.’ But Bible students are not sure about Isaiah 19:16-25. They wonder whether it has already happened. Or maybe it is still in the future.

v1 [This is a] serious message [about] Egypt.

Look! The *LORD will come to Egypt. He will ride on a cloud that will move quickly. The *idols in Egypt will tremble when he comes. Also, the hearts of Egypt’s [people] will melt inside them.

v2 ‘I will make Egypt’s [people fight] against Egypt’s [people]. A man will fight against his brother. A man will fight against his neighbour. [People in] a city [will fight] against [another] city’s [people]. And [people in] a kingdom (country that a king rules) [will fight] against [another] kingdom’s [people].

v3 [I will] pour out the spirit of Egypt’s [people] from inside them. And I will confuse their plans. [So] they will ask [for help from] their *idols. And [they will request help from] the spirits of dead people. [They will ask for help from] *mediums and wizards (people that use magic).

v4 And I will hand Egypt’s [people] over to the power of a cruel master. And a powerful king will rule over them.’ [That is what] the *Lord, the *LORD of Everything, says.

Notes

Verse 1 Read the note before Isaiah 13:1. And read the note about Isaiah 15:1. They explain more about the words ‘serious message’. ‘LORD’ is the name that God calls himself in his covenant. ‘Covenant’ means a special serious agreement that people (or here, God and people) make with each other. In God’s covenant with his people, God’s people agree to serve him. He agrees to be their God and he agrees to protect them. Isaiah says that the *LORD will come to Egypt. That will make the idols in Egypt tremble. That is, it will make them afraid. An ‘idol’ is a false god. The *Hebrew word for ‘idols’ here really means ‘something that is worth nothing’. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. In this chapter, he uses the *Hebrew word for ‘Egypt’ many times. It usually means ‘the people that live in Egypt’. Here, the *Hebrew words mean ‘the heart of Egypt’. But that actually refers to ‘the hearts of Egypt’s people’. We read that ‘the hearts of Egypt’s [people] will melt’. It is another way to say that they will ‘tremble with fear’. People will ‘be very afraid’. Some other verses in the Bible describe God when he rides on a cloud. They are in Deuteronomy 33:26; Psalms 18:10-12; Psalms 68:4; Psalms 68:33 and Psalms 104:3.

Verse 2 At that time, each city in Egypt had its own leader called a king. So cities were called ‘kingdoms’ (places that had a king). Isaiah said that people in different cities would not agree with each other. So, they would fight each other. That made it easy for enemies to defeat Egypt. Two such enemies were the nations called Assyria and Cush. Assyria’s army defeated Egypt in 720 B.C. and Cush’s army defeated Egypt in 712 B.C. ‘B.C.’ means ‘years Before Christ came to the Earth’. Cush was a country that was south from Egypt. The nation called Cush ruled Egypt from 712 to 666 B.C.

The *LORD is speaking here. He says that he will make Egypt’s people fight against each other. When people in the same country fight each other, there is internal war. We call it ‘civil war’, because it is ‘war in a civilisation’.

Verse 3 ‘Pour out the spirit’ means this. People will become so sad that they will not fight anybody. It means the same as the end of verse 1. That has ‘the heart of Egypt’s [people] will melt’. A usual way to say that in English is ‘the people in Egypt will lose heart’. When someone confuses a plan, it will not work. The *Hebrew text actually has this. ‘[I will] pour out the spirit of Egypt from inside him. And I will confuse his plans.’ However, ‘him’ and ‘his’ here refer to the people in Egypt. Then there is a list to explain whom Egypt’s people will ask to help them. The list includes their *idols (false gods) and it includes the spirits of dead people. To ask those would be a bad thing to do. In the Bible, God says that we must not talk to dead people’s spirits (Leviticus 19:31 and Deuteronomy 18:9-14). ‘Mediums’ speak messages that they consider to be from dead people. The mediums say that dead people’s spirits speak those messages by means of them. So what the mediums do is bad. A ‘wizard’ is someone that does bad magic.

Verse 4 Bible students do not know who the cruel master was. ‘The power of’ a cruel master means this. The cruel master can do what he wants to do with the people. ‘The Lord, the *LORD of Everything’ is a name for God. It is in Isaiah 3:1. And it is also in many other places in the Book of Isaiah. ‘Lord’ means ‘master’. It is not a translation of the same *Hebrew word that we print as ‘*LORD’. There is a note about ‘*LORD’ under Isaiah 1:1. We could translate ‘the *LORD of Everything’ as ‘the *LORD of Many [Armies]’. The *Hebrew word for ‘many’ here means ‘a large number (usually of soldiers or angels)’. ‘Angels’ are God’s special servants in heaven.

v5 And the waters of the sea will become dry. And the river will become very, very dry.

v6 And the canals will have less [water] and they will smell badly. And the streams in Egypt will become dry. The reeds and rushes (types of plants that grow in water) will die.

v7 The plants at the side of the [Nile] river will die. And [also the plants] at [the river’s] mouth (part where it enters the sea) [will die]. Everything [that people] plant by the river will become dry. [The wind will] blow it away and [there will be] nothing there.

v8 And the fishermen (men that catch fish) will be very sad. Everyone that throws a *hook [and line] into the river will cry. Also, those people that spread a net on the waters’ surface will become very ill. [And then they will die.]

v9 The people that work with the flax (plant to make cloth) will be in despair. [The women that] comb [the flax will be anxious]. And the men that make it into cloth [will also be anxious].

v10 That will destroy (make very unhappy) the spirit of the workers [in Egypt]. Everyone that earns money [will become] very unhappy in their hearts.

Notes

Verses 5-7 The main river in Egypt was the Nile river. It flowed into the Mediterranean Sea. Canals took the water from the Nile river into the fields. Many smaller rivers and streams flowed with water there. Isaiah says that all those will become dry. There will be no water in any rivers or streams in Egypt. As a result, the plants that grow in the water will die. And the ones that grow near the water will die. Those plants include the ones called reeds and rushes. ‘Reeds’ are like tall grasses and their leaves may have sharp points at the end. ‘Rushes’ are quite similar, but they usually have larger green or brown flowers. The ‘mouth’ of a river is where it enters the sea.

Verses 8-9 But not only the wild plants, like reeds (tall grasses that grow in water), will die. The crops that people use for food and clothes will also die. When the river dries up, the people will suffer loss. They depend on the river. Those people include:

• farmers (verse 7)

• fishermen (men that catch fish) (verse 8)
• people that make cloth from the plants called flax (and cotton), which grow by the water (verse 9).

A hook and line, and also nets, are what fishermen use in order to catch fish. The ‘hook’ is a sharp object that holds the fish by its mouth. People put it on the end of a line. The fishermen will become sad. They will cry and then they will become very ill. Then they will die. The women made thread (a special thin string) from the flax plants, and the men made the thread into cloth.

Verse 10 This may refer only to the workers in verse 9. But it is also true about the farmers and fishermen (men that catch fish). What happens will ‘destroy their spirit’. In other words, it will make them ‘very unhappy in their hearts’. Those two phrases mean the same thing, which is this. What happens will depress them greatly. It will make them very, very sad.

v11 The princes in Zoan are really foolish! The wisest [ones] among the people that advise Pharaoh give stupid advice! You cannot say to Pharaoh, ‘I am a son of a wise man. I am a son of an ancient king.’

v12 Then, [Pharaoh,] find your wise men! Let them tell this to you now. They [ought to] know what the *LORD of Everything has decided to do against Egypt.

v13 The princes in Zoan have made fools of themselves. The princes in Noph have confused each other. The leaders of the groups [of people] have made Egypt choose wrongly.

v14 The *LORD has mixed up (confused) the people [in Egypt]. He has confused their spirits. In everything that they do, they make wrong choices. [They make] wrong choices like a drunk that is being sick.

v15 There is nothing that anybody in Egypt can do. [It does not matter] whether they are [like] the head or [like] the tail. [They may be like a] branch of the tree called a palm. Or they may be [like] a reed (tall grass that grows near water). [That does not matter.]

Notes

Verse 11 Zoan was an important city in Egypt. It was near the border with Judah. The king of Egypt, called Pharaoh, often went there, especially in the summer. His princes, the people that gave him advice, went with him. But they gave bad advice. In *Hebrew, Isaiah asks them a question. He asks, ‘How can you say that you are a son of a wise man?’ ‘Son of a wise man’ probably means this. A wise man had been king Pharaoh’s adviser. But when the wise man died, his son became Pharaoh’s adviser instead of him. However, it may mean that someone had trained him to be a wise man. And then other people called him ‘the son’ of his wise teacher. However, the answer to the question is clearly, ‘You cannot say that! You cannot say that you are wise yourself!’

Verse 12 Now Isaiah speaks directly to Pharaoh. In *Hebrew, he asks this question. ‘Then where, [Pharaoh,] are your wise men?’ And by means of the other words in this verse, he is also asking this. ‘Can Pharaoh’s wise men tell him what the *LORD will do against Egypt?’ But the clear answer is that they cannot tell him (verses 13-15).

Verse 13 The note about verse 11 explains Zoan. Noph was the capital of ancient Egypt. Its other name was Memphis. It was 10 kilometres south from where Cairo is today.

Verse 14 The phrase ‘mixed up’ has a special meaning here. It means ‘confused’. The *LORD did something to the people in Egypt. And that made them confused.

Verse 15 ‘The head or the tail’ here means ‘important or not important’. The ‘palm’ is a tree whose branches are high up. They are all at the top of the tree. So its branches are like the head. But ‘reeds’ (another type of plant) grow down below, by the water. So they are like the tail. So this verse means this. Nobody, whether they are important or not, could save Egypt then.

v16 In those days Egypt’s people will tremble like women. They will be afraid because the *LORD of Everything will lift his hand against them.

v17 The [name of the] country called Judah will make the people in Egypt very afraid. When [people] mention [that name], they will be afraid. This is because the *LORD of Everything has decided to do [something] against them. That [is what they will be afraid] of.

v18 In those days [some people] in the country called Egypt will speak Canaan’s language. [The people in] five cities [there will speak it. And they] will promise to obey the *LORD of Everything. One among those cities will be called Sun City.

v19 In those days there will be an *altar [to give honour] to the *LORD. [It will be] in the middle of the country called Egypt. Also, [there will be] a column [to give honour] to the *LORD at [Egypt’s] border.

v20 [Those things] will be signs (special things that show evidence) to [everyone] in the country called Egypt. [Those things will] make them know about the *LORD of Everything. [The people will] cry to the *LORD because of cruel people. [Then he will do these things:]

• [He will] send someone to make them safe.

• And [he will send] a judge that will rescue them.

v21 And the *LORD will cause the people in Egypt to know him. And the people in Egypt will know the *LORD in those days. And they will *worship [the *LORD] and [they will] offer gifts to him. [Their gifts will include] animals and grain. They will make promises to the *LORD. Then they will do what they have promised to do.

v22 And [if] the *LORD should strike Egypt’s people with a *plague, he will strike. But then he will make them well again. So [then] they would return to the *LORD. And he would answer their prayers and [he would] make them well again.

v23 In those days there will be a road from Egypt to Assyria. [People from] Assyria will go to Egypt. And [people from] Egypt will go to Assyria. People from Egypt and Assyria will *worship together.

v24 In those days Israel will be the third [nation] with Egypt and Assyria. Good things will happen in the middle of the world.

v25 The *LORD of Everything will *bless them. He will say, ‘I will *bless my people, Egypt’s [people]. And [I will *bless my people], Assyria’s [people] that I have made. Also, [I will *bless] Israel’s [people] because they belong to me.’

Notes

Here are six things that will happen ‘in those days’:

• The people in Egypt will be afraid (verses 16-17).

• People in five cities in Egypt will speak Canaan’s language (verse 18).
• There will be an *altar to give honour to the *LORD in Egypt (verse 19).
• The people in Egypt will know the *LORD (verse 21).
• There will be a road from Egypt to Assyria (verse 23).
• Israel, Egypt and Assyria will agree together (verse 24).

We do not know when ‘those days’ were. Those words probably refer to several different occasions. But perhaps we can translate ‘in those days’ better as ‘one day’ (a future day). The only time when some things here will happen is after Jesus’ return to the Earth. They will happen on the New Earth!

Verse 16 The Old Testament contains the first 39 books in the Bible. But this is the only place where it has ‘tremble like women’. Usually the writers say ‘have pain, like a woman that is having a baby’. There is an example of that in Psalms 48:6. ‘Then they were afraid. And they had pain, like a woman that is having a baby.’ Not only the women will tremble with fear, but the men will tremble also. Above, there is a explanation about ‘the *LORD of Everything’. It is in the note about verse 4.

Here we read ‘lifts his hand against them’. However, the *Hebrew words for that are actually more complex. The *Hebrew word for ‘lift’ really means ‘wave’. So the sentences are like this. ‘And he (Egypt’s people) will be afraid, when the *LORD of Everything waves his hand. He (the *LORD) will wave [his hand] against him (Egypt’s people).’ The word ‘hand’ here shows that the *LORD intends to do something. Perhaps the *LORD will wave his hand to remind Egypt’s people about the bad things called plagues. Those bad things happened to Egypt’s people before Moses took the *Jews away from Egypt. The *Jews were God’s people. Later they lived in Israel and Judah. (We pronounce Judah as ‘JEWdah’.)

Verse 17 Bible students do not know why the ‘(name of the) country called Judah’ will frighten Egypt’s people. Here are two possible reasons:

1) It would remind them about Judah’s God. And it would remind them what that God would do to Egypt.

2) It would remind them about the army of Judah. In 667 *B.C., Judah’s army helped Assyria to defeat Egypt. And such a thing may have happened more than once.

Verse 18 The language that people spoke in Canaan was probably *Hebrew or *Aramaic. ‘B.C.’ means ‘years Before Christ came to the Earth’. Some *Jews probably started to live in Egypt about 950 B.C. At that time Solomon was king of Judah. And he ruled as far as the border of Egypt (2 Chronicles 9:26). Probably some people in Egypt started to obey the *LORD then. They changed their religion to the *Jews’ religion. A little later, Egypt’s King Shishak took control of cities in Judah (2 Chronicles 12:1-9). Jeremiah 44:1 has the names of three towns where many *Jews lived in Egypt. And the writer also mentions another area where *Jews lived in Egypt. That was about 600 B.C. Bible students are not sure about ‘Sun City’. There was a city in Egypt called Heliopolis. That name means ‘Sun City’. But the *Hebrew word here may also mean a city that someone would soon destroy. And it could also mean a city whose people were very, very good.

Verses 19-20 An ‘altar’ was a kind of table. There was an altar outside the temple (God’s special house) in Jerusalem. God’s special servants, called priests, offered things to God on it. On the altar, they burned animals that they had killed. And they burned grain on it. God had said in the Book of Leviticus that his people should do these things in order to *worship him.

An ancient writer called Josephus wrote a history of the *Jews. He wrote that there was a temple (holy building) to *worship the *LORD at Leontopolis in Egypt. That temple probably had an altar. The column was at the border of Egypt. Perhaps it was on the road from Judah to Egypt. It reminded people that God would be with them in Egypt.

Verses 21-22 However, it is not only the *Jews in Egypt who will *worship the *LORD. Egypt’s people themselves will ‘*worship the *LORD and they will offer gifts to him’. They will probably offer those gifts on the *altar in verse 19. But we may ask when this would happen. Bible students suggest three answers:

(a) It happened at some past time that we do not know about.

(b) It will happen at some time in the future.

(c) It will never happen, because Judah’s people did not obey the *LORD.

Answers (a) and (b) may both be correct. Answer (c) is probably not correct, because the *Jews will obey God completely in the future (Romans 11:26). God has wonderful plans for Judah and Jerusalem (Isaiah chapter 62).

The note about verse 16 explains the word ‘*plague’. ‘*Worship the *LORD’ means ‘love the *LORD’. It means also ‘serve the *LORD’. And it means ‘obey him’.

Verse 23 There was always a road between Egypt and Assyria. So here, ‘road’ probably means political and economic agreement. But clearly, the two nations will also agree about religion. People from both nations will *worship the *LORD together.

Verses 24-25 We may ask when this will happen. The answer is the same as for verses 21-22. If it is in the future, then this is an important promise. Egypt, Israel and Assyria were in the middle of Isaiah’s world. And they are still in the middle of our world. If God blesses those nations, then he will also bless the rest of the world! We must pray for that to happen. To ‘bless’ people means to ‘do good things to’ them.

heavens ~ either the home of God or the skies.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jews ~ people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
lord ~ master. With a capital L, it can be a name for God.
LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YAHWEH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YAHWEH.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jews ~ people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
idol ~ a picture or an image of a false god.
medium ~ someone that says that they can talk to dead people.
lord ~ master. With a capital L, it can be a name for God.
LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YAHWEH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YAHWEH.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jews ~ people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
altar ~ a special table where priests burned animals for God.
worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.
plague ~ when many bad things happen to a country. These can include illnesses.
bless ~ to do good things to someone; to be very good to people, so that they have many children, animals and fruits; or, to say that something good will happen to someone.
Jews ~ people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
Aramaic ~ the language that the people in Syria spoke. People also used that language for communications between governments.
worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.