{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ISA","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Isaiah","commonName":"Isaiah","introduction":"ISAIAH, son of Amoz (not Amos); contemporary of Jonah, Amos, Hosea, in Israel, but younger than they; and of Micah, in Judah. His call to a higher degree of the prophetic office (Isa 6:1-13) is assigned to the last year of Uzziah, that is, 754 B.C. The first through fifth chapters belong to the closing years of that reign; not, as some think, to Jotham's reign: in the reign of the latter he seems to have exercised his office only orally, and not to have left any record of his prophecies because they were not intended for all ages. The first through fifth and sixth chapters are all that was designed for the Church universal of the prophecies of the first twenty years of his office. New historical epochs, such as occurred in the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, when the affairs of Israel became interwoven with those of the Asiatic empires, are marked by prophetic writings. The prophets had now to interpret the judgments of the Lord, so as to make the people conscious of His punitive justice, as also of His mercy. Isa. 7:1-10:4 belong to the reign of Ahaz. The thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters are historical, reaching to the fifteenth year of Hezekiah; probably the tenth through twelfth chapters and all from the thirteenth through twenty-sixth chapters, inclusive, belong to the same reign; the historical section being appended to facilitate the right understanding of these prophecies; thus we have Isaiah's office extending from about 760 to 713 B.C., forty-seven years. Tradition (Talmud) represents him as having been sawn asunder by Manasseh with a wooden saw, for having said that he had seen Jehovah (Exo 33:20; Kg2 21:16; Heb 11:37). Ch2 32:32 seems to imply that Isaiah survived Hezekiah; but \"first and last\" is not added, as in Ch2 26:22, which makes it possible that his history of Hezekiah was only carried up to a certain point. The second part, the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, containing complaints of gross idolatry, needs not to be restricted to Manasseh's reign, but is applicable to previous reigns. At the accession of Manasseh, Isaiah would be eighty-four; and if he prophesied for eight years afterwards, he must have endured martyrdom at ninety-two; so Hosea prophesied for sixty years. And Eastern tradition reports that he lived to one hundred and twenty. The conclusive argument against the tradition is that, according to the inscription, all Isaiah's prophecies are included in the time from Uzziah to Hezekiah; and the internal evidence accords with this.\n\nHis WIFE is called the prophetess [Isa 8:3], that is, endowed, as Miriam, with a prophetic gift.\n\nHis CHILDREN were considered by him as not belonging merely to himself; in their names, Shearjashub, \"the remnant shall return\" [Isa 7:3, Margin], and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, \"speeding to the spoil, he hasteth to the prey\" [Isa 8:1, Margin], the two chief points of his prophecies are intimated to the people, the judgments of the Lord on the people and the world, and yet His mercy to the elect.\n\nHis GARMENT of sackcloth (Isa 20:2), too, was a silent preaching by fact; he appears as the embodiment of that repentance which he taught.\n\nHis HISTORICAL WORKS.--History, as written by the prophets, is retroverted prophecy. As the past and future alike proceed from the essence of God, an inspired insight into the past implies an insight into the future, and vice versa. Hence most of the Old Testament histories are written by prophets and are classed with their writings; the Chronicles being not so classed, cannot have been written by them, but are taken from historical monographs of theirs; for example, Isaiah's life of Uzziah, Ch2 26:22; also of Hezekiah, Ch2 32:32; of these latter all that was important for all ages has been preserved to us, while the rest, which was local and temporary, has been lost.\n\nThe INSCRIPTION (Isa 1:1) applies to the whole book and implies that Isaiah is the author of the second part (the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters), as well as of the first. Nor do the words, \"concerning Judah and Jerusalem\" [Isa 1:1], oppose the idea that the inscription applies to the whole; for whatever he says against other nations, he says on account of their relation to Judah. So the inscription of Amos, \"concerning Israel\" [Amo 1:1], though several prophecies follow against foreign nations. EWALD maintains that the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, though spurious, were subjoined to the previous portion, in order to preserve the former. But it is untrue that the first portion is unconnected with those chapters. The former ends with the Babylonian exile (Isa 39:6), the latter begins with the coming redemption from it. The portion, the fortieth through forty-sixth chapters, has no heading of its own, a proof that it is closely connected with what precedes, and falls under the general heading in Isa 1:1. JOSEPHUS (The Antiquities of the Jews, 11. 1, sec. 1, 2) says that Cyrus was induced by the prophecies of Isaiah (Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1, Isa 45:13) to aid the Jews in returning and rebuilding the temple Ezr 1:1-11 confirms this; Cyrus in his edict there plainly refers to the prophecies in the second portion, which assign the kingdoms to him from Jehovah, and the duty of rebuilding the temple. Probably he took from them his historical name Cyrus (Coresh). Moreover, subsequent prophets imitate this second portion, which EWALD assigns to later times; for example, compare Jer. 50:1-51:64 with Isaiah's predictions against Babylon [Isa. 13:1-14:23]. \"The Holy One of Israel,\" occurring but three times elsewhere in the Old Testament [Kg2 19:22; Psa 78:41; Psa 89:18; Jer 50:29; Jer 51:5], is a favorite expression in the second, as in the first portion of Isaiah: it expresses God's covenant faithfulness in fulfilling the promises therein: Jeremiah borrows the expression from him. Also Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25 (\"comforted\"), quotes Isa 40:1 as Isaiah's. Luk 4:17 quotes Isa 61:1-2 as Isaiah's, and as read as such by Jesus Christ in the synagogue.\n\nThe DEFINITENESS of the prophecies is striking: As in the second portion of isaiah, so in Mic 4:8-10, the Babylonian exile, and the deliverance from it, are foretold a hundred fifty years before any hostilities had arisen between Babylon and Judah. On the other hand, all the prophets who foretell the Assyrian invasion coincide in stating, that Judah should be delivered from it, not by Egyptian aid, but directly by the Lord. Again Jeremiah, in the height of the Chaldean prosperity, foretold its conquest by the Medes, who should enter Babylon through the dry bed of the Euphrates on a night of general revelry. No human calculation could have discovered these facts. EICHORN terms these prophecies \"veiled historical descriptions,\" recognizing in spite of himself that they are more than general poetical fancies. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was certainly written ages before the Messiah, yet it minutely portrays His sufferings: these cannot be Jewish inventions, for the Jews looked for a reigning, not a suffering, Messiah.\n\nRationalists are so far right that THE PROPHECIES ARE ON A GENERAL BASIS whereby they are distinguished from soothsaying. They rest on the essential idea of God. The prophets, penetrated by this inner knowledge of His character, became conscious of the eternal laws by which the world is governed: that sin is man's ruin, and must be followed by judgment, but that God's covenant mercy to His elect is unchangeable. Without prophetism, the elect remnant would have decreased, and even God's judgments would have missed their end, by not being recognized as such: they would have been unmeaning, isolated facts. Babylon was in Isaiah's days under Assyria; it had tried a revolt unsuccessfully: but the elements of its subsequent success and greatness were then existing. The Holy Ghost enlightened his natural powers to discern this its rise; and his spiritual faculties, to foresee its fall, the sure consequence, in God's eternal law, of the pride which pagan success generates--and also Judah's restoration, as the covenant-people, with whom God, according to His essential character, would not be wroth for ever. True conversion is the prophet's grand remedy against all evils: in this alone consists his politics. Rebuke, threatening, and promise, regularly succeed one another. The idea at the basis of all is in Isa 26:7-9; Lev 10:3; Amo 3:2.\n\nThe USE OF THE PRESENT AND PRETERITE in prophecy is no proof that the author is later than Isaiah. For seers view the future as present, and indicate what is ideally past, not really past; seeing things in the light of God, who \"calls the things that are not as though they were.\" Moreover, as in looking from a height on a landscape, hills seem close together which are really wide apart, so, in events foretold, the order, succession, and grouping are presented, but the intervals of time are overlooked. The time, however, is sometimes marked (Jer 25:12; Dan 9:26). Thus the deliverance from Babylon, and that effected by Messiah, are in rapid transition grouped together by THE LAW OF PROPHETIC SUGGESTION; yet no prophet so confounds the two as to make Messiah the leader of Israel from Babylon. To the prophet there was probably no double sense; but to his spiritual eye the two events, though distinct, lay so near, and were so analogous, that he could not separate them in description without unfaithfulness to the picture presented before him. The more remote and antitypical event, however, namely, Messiah's coming, is that to which he always hastens, and which he describes with far more minuteness than he does the nearer type; for example, Cyrus (compare Isa 45:1 with Isa 53:1-12). In some cases he takes his stand in the midst of events between, for example, the humiliation of Jesus Christ, which he views as past, and His glorification, as yet to come, using the future tense as to the latter (compare Isa 53:4-9 with Isa 53:10-12). Marks of the time of events are given sparingly in the prophets: yet, as to Messiah, definitely enough to create the general expectation of Him at the time that He was in fact born.\n\nThe CHALDÆISMS alleged against the genuineness of the second portion of Isaiah, are found more in the first and undoubted portion. They occur in all the Old Testament, especially in the poetical parts, which prefer unusual expressions, and are due to the fact that the patriarchs were surrounded by Chaldee-speaking people; and in Isaiah's time a few Chaldee words had crept in from abroad.\n\nHis SYMBOLS are few and simple, and his poetical images correct; in the prophets, during and after the exile, the reverse holds good; Haggai and Malachi are not exceptions; for, though void of bold images, their style, unlike Isaiah's, rises little above prose: a clear proof that our Isaiah was long before the exile.\n\nOf VISIONS, strictly so called, he has but one, that in the sixth chapter; even it is more simple than those in later prophets. But he often gives SIGNS, that is, a present fact as pledge of the more distant future; God condescending to the feebleness of man (Isa 7:14; Isa 37:30; Isa 38:7).\n\nThe VARIETIES IN HIS STYLE do not prove spuriousness, but that he varied his style with his subject. The second portion is not so much addressed to his contemporaries, as to the future people of the Lord, the elect remnant, purified by the previous judgments. Hence its tenderness of style, and frequent repetitions (Isa 40:1): for comforting exhortation uses many words; so also the many epithets added to the name of God, intended as stays whereon faith may rest for comfort, so as not to despair. In both portions alike there are peculiarities characteristic of Isaiah; for example, \"to be called\" equivalent to to be: the repetition of the same words, instead of synonyms, in the parallel members of verses; the interspersing of his prophecies with hymns: \"the remnant of olive trees,\" &c., for the remnant of people who have escaped God's judgments. Also compare Isa 65:25 with Isa 11:6.\n\nThe CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT favors the opinion that Isaiah himself collected his prophecies into the volume; not Hezekiah's men, as the Talmud guesses from Pro 25:1. All the portions, the dates of which can be ascertained, stand in the right place, except a few instances, where prophecies of similar contents are placed together: with the termination of the Assyrian invasion (the thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters) terminated the public life of Isaiah. The second part is his prophetic legacy to the small band of the faithful, analogous to the last speeches of Moses and of Jesus Christ to His chosen disciples.\n\nThe EXPECTATION OF MESSIAH is so strong in Isaiah, that JEROME To Paulinus calls his book not a prophecy, but the gospel: \"He is not so much a prophet as an evangelist.\" Messiah was already shadowed forth in Gen 49:10, as the Shiloh, or tranquillizer; also in Psalms 2, 45, 72, 110. Isaiah brings it out more definitely; and, whereas they dwelt on His kingly office, Isaiah develops most His priestly and prophetic office; the hundred tenth Psalm also had set forth His priesthood, but His kingly rather than, as Isaiah, His suffering, priesthood. The latter is especially dwelt on in the second part, addressed to the faithful elect; whereas the first part, addressed to the whole people, dwells on Messiah's glory, the antidote to the fears which then filled the people, and the assurance that the kingdom of God, then represented by Judah, would not be overwhelmed by the surrounding nations.\n\nHis STYLE (HENGSTENBERG, Christology of the Old Testament,) is simple and sublime; in imagery, intermediate between the poverty of Jeremiah and the exuberance of Ezekiel. He shows his command of it in varying it to suit his subject.\n\nThe FORM is mostly that of Hebrew poetical parallelism, with, however, a freedom unshackled by undue restrictions.\n\nJUDAH, the less apostate people, rather than Israel, was the subject of his prophecies: his residence was mostly at Jerusalem. On his praises, see Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25. Christ and the apostles quote no prophet so frequently. \n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 1\n\n","order":23,"numberOfChapters":66,"sha256":"05afbc35163ce25bd06467062226b36d66e6285d8ca85b4815540db57d9466be","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":66,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/66.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":66},"totalNumberOfVerses":1200},"chapter":{"number":19,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["set--stir up. GESENIUS translates, \"arm.\" \n\nEgyptians against the Egyptians--Lower against Upper: and Saitic against both. (See Isa 3:10). NEWTON refers it to the civil wars between Apries and Amasis at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion; also between Tachos, Nectanebus, and the Mendesians, just before Ochus subdued Egypt. \n\nkingdom against kingdom--The Septuagint has \"nome against nome\"; Egypt was divided into forty-two nomes or districts.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["spirit--wisdom, for which Egypt was famed (Isa 31:2; Kg1 4:30; Act 7:22); answering to \"counsel\" in the parallel clause. \n\nfail--literally, \"be poured out,\" that is, be made void (Jer 19:7). They shall \"seek\" help from sources that can afford none, \"charmers,\" &c. (Isa 8:19). \n\ncharmers--literally, \"those making a faint sound\"; the soothsayers imitated the faint sound which was attributed to the spirits of the dead (see on Isa 8:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["cruel lord--\"Sargon,\" in Hebrew it is lords; but plural is often used to express greatness, where, one alone is meant (Gen 39:2). The parallel word \"king\" (singular) proves it. NEWTON makes the general reference to be to Nebuchadnezzar, and a particular reference to Cambyses, son of Cyrus (who killed the Egyptian god, Apis), and Ochus, Persian conquerors of Egypt, noted for their \"fierce cruelty.\" GESENIUS refers it to Psammetichus, who had brought into Egypt Greek and other foreign mercenaries to subdue the other eleven princes of the dodecarchy.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["the sea--the Nile. Physical calamities, it is observed in history, often accompany political convulsions (Eze 30:12). The Nile shall \"fail\" to rise to its wonted height, the result of which will be barrenness and famine. Its \"waters\" at the time of the overflow resemble \"a sea\" [PLINY, Natural History, 85.11]; and it is still called El-Bahr,\" \"the sea,\" by the Egyptians (Isa 18:2; Jer 51:36). A public record is kept at Cairo of the daily rise of the water at the proper time of overflow, namely, August: if it rises to a less height than twelve cubits, it will not overflow the land, and famine must be the result. So, also, when it rises higher than sixteen; for the waters are not drained off in time sufficient to sow the seed.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["they shall turn the rivers--rather, \"the streams shall become putrid\"; that is, the artificial streams made for irrigation shall become stagnant and offensive when the waters fail [MAURER]. HORSLEY, with the Septuagint, translates, \"And waters from the sea shall be drunk\"; by the failure of the river water they shall be reduced to sea water. \n\nbrooks of defence--rather, \"canals of Egypt\"; \"canals,\" literally, \"Niles,\" Nile canals, the plural of the Egyptian term for the great river. The same Hebrew word, Matzor, whence comes Mitzraim, expresses Egypt, and a place of \"defense.\" HORSLEY, as English Version translates it, \"embanked canals,\" \n\nreeds . . . flags--the papyrus. \"Reed and rush\"; utter withering.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["paper-reeds--rather, pastures, literally, \"places naked\" of wood, and famed for rich herbage, on the banks of the Nile [GESENIUS]. Compare Gen 13:10; Deu 11:10. HORSLEY translates, \"nakedness upon the river,\" descriptive of the appearance of a river when its bottom is bare and its banks stripped of verdure by long drought: so Vulgate. \n\nthe brooks--the river. \n\nmouth--rather, \"the source\" [Vulgate]. \"Even close to the river's side vegetation shall be so withered as to be scattered in the shape of powder by the wind\" (English Version, \"driven away\") [HORSLEY].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["fishers--The Nile was famed for fish (Num 11:5); many would be thrown out of employment by the failure of fishes. \n\nangle--a hook. Used in the \"brooks\" or canals, as the \"net\" was in \"the waters\" of the river itself.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["fine flax--GESENIUS, for \"fine,\" translates, \"combed\"; fine \"linen\" was worn by the rich only (Luk 16:19). Egypt was famous for it (Exo 9:31; Kg1 10:28; Pro 7:16; Eze 27:7). The processes of its manufacture are represented on the Egyptian tombs. Israel learned the art in Egypt (Exo 26:36). The cloth now found on the mummies was linen, as is shown by the microscope. WILKINSON mentions linen from Egypt which has five hundred forty (or two hundred seventy double) threads in one inch in the warp; whereas some modern cambric has but a hundred sixty [BARNES]. \n\nnetworks--rather, white cloth (Est 1:6; Est 8:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["in the purposes--rather, \"the foundations,\" that is, \"the nobles shall be broken\" or brought low: so Isa 3:1; Psa 11:3; compare Isa 19:13, \"The princes--the stay of the tribes. The Arabs call a prince \"a pillar of the people\" [MAURER]. \"Their weaving-frames\" [HORSLEY]. \"Dykes\" [BARNES]. \n\nall that make sluices, &c.--\"makers of dams,\" made to confine the waters which overflow from the Nile in artificial fish-ponds [HORSLEY]. \"Makers of gain,\" that is, the common people who have to earn their livelihood, as opposed to the \"nobles\" previously [MAURER].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Zoan--The Greeks called it Tanis, a city of Lower Egypt, east of the Tanitic arms of the Nile, now San; it was one the Egyptian towns nearest to Palestine (Num 13:22), the scene of Moses' miracles (Psa 78:12, Psa 78:43). It, or else Memphis, was the capital under Sethos. \n\nI am . . . son of the wise . . . kings--Ye have no advice to suggest to Pharaoh in the crisis, notwithstanding that ye boast of descent from wise and royal ancestors. The priests were the usual \"counsellors\" of the Egyptian king. He was generally chosen from the priestly caste, or, if from the warrior caste, he was admitted into the sacred order, and was called a priest. The priests are, therefore, meant by the expression, \"son of the wise, and of ancient kings\"; this was their favorite boast (HERODOTUS, 2.141; compare Amo 7:14; Act 23:6; Phi 3:5). \"Pharaoh\" was the common name of all the kings: Sethos, probably, is here meant.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["let them know--that is, How is it that, with all their boast of knowing the future [DIODORUS, 1.81], they do not know what Jehovah of hosts . . .\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Noph--called also Moph; Greek, Memphis (Hos 9:6); on the western bank of the Nile, capital of Lower Egypt, second only to Thebes in all Egypt: residence of the kings, until the Ptolemies removed to Alexandria; the word means the \"port of the good\" [PLUTARCH]. The military caste probably ruled in it: \"they also are deceived,\" in fancying their country secure from Assyrian invasion. \n\nstay of . . . tribes--rather, \"corner-stone of her castes\" [MAURER], that is, the princes, the two ruling castes, the priests and the warriors: image from a building which rests mainly on its corner-stones (see on Isa 19:10; Isa 28:16; Psa 118:22; Num 24:17, Margin; Jdg 20:2; Sa1 14:28, Margin; Zac 10:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["err in every work thereof--referring to the anarchy arising from their internal feuds. HORSLEY translates, \"with respect to all His (God's) work\"; they misinterpreted God's dealings at every step. \"Mingled\" contains the same image as \"drunken\"; as one mixes spices with wine to make it intoxicating (Isa 5:22; Pro 9:2, Pro 9:5), so Jehovah has poured among them a spirit of giddiness, so that they are as helpless as a \"drunken man.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["work for Egypt--nothing which Egypt can do to extricate itself from the difficulty. \n\nhead or tail--high or low (Isa 19:11-15, and Isa 19:8-10). \n\nbranch or rush--the lofty palm branch or the humble reed (Isa 9:14-15; Isa 10:33-34).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["like . . . women--timid and helpless (Jer 51:30; Nah 3:13). \n\nshaking of . . . hand--His judgments by means of the invaders (Isa 10:5, Isa 10:32; Isa 11:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["Judah . . . terror unto Egypt--not by itself: but at this time Hezekiah was the active subordinate ally of Assyria in its invasion of Egypt under Sargon. Similarly to the alliance of Judah with Assyria here is Kg2 23:29, where Josiah takes the field against Pharaoh-nechoh of Egypt, probably as ally of Assyria against Egypt [G. V. SMITH]. VITRINGA explains it that Egypt in its calamities would remember that prophets of Judah had foretold them, and so Judah would be \"a terror unto Egypt.\" \n\nthereof--of Judah. \n\nit--Egypt.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["In that day, &c.--Suffering shall lead to repentance. Struck with \"terror\" and \"afraid\" (Isa 19:17) because of Jehovah's judgments, Egypt shall be converted to Him: nay, even Assyria shall join in serving Him; so that Israel, Assyria, and Egypt, once mutual foes, shall be bound together by the tie of a common faith as one people. So a similar issue from other prophecies (Isa 18:7; Isa 23:18). \n\nfive cities--that is, several cities, as in Isa 17:6; Isa 30:17; Gen 43:34; Lev 26:8. Rather, five definite cities of Lower Egypt (Isa 19:11, Isa 19:13; Isa 30:4), which had close intercourse with the neighboring Jewish cities [MAURER]; some say, Heliopolis, Leontopolis (else Diospolis), Migdol, Daphne (Tahpanes), and Memphis. \n\nlanguage of Canaan--that is, of the Hebrews in Canaan, the language of revelation; figuratively for, They shall embrace the Jewish religion: so \"a pure language\" and conversion to God are connected in Zep 3:9; as also the first confounding and multiplication of languages was the punishment of the making of gods at Babel, other than the One God. Pentecost (Act 2:4) was the counterpart of Babel: the separation of nations is not to hinder the unity of faith; the full realization of this is yet future (Zac 14:9; Joh 17:21). The next clause, \"swear to the Lord of Hosts,\" agrees with this view; that is, bind themselves to Him by solemn covenant (Isa 45:23; Isa 65:16; Deu 6:13). \n\ncity of destruction--Onias; \"city of the sun,\" that is, On, or Heliopolis; he persuaded Ptolemy Philometer (149 B.C.) to let him build a temple in the prefecture (nome) of Heliopolis, on the ground that it would induce Jews to reside there, and that the very site was foretold by Isaiah six hundred years before. The reading of the Hebrew text is, however, better supported, \"city of destruction\"; referring to Leontopolis, the site of Onias' temple: which casts a reproach on that city because it was about to contain a temple rivalling the only sanctioned temple, that at Jerusalem. MAURER, with some manuscripts, reads \"city of defense\" or \"deliverance\"; namely, Memphis, or some such city, to which God was about to send \"a saviour\" (Isa 19:20), to \"deliver them.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["altar--not for sacrifice, but as the \"pillar\" for memorial and worship (Jos 22:22-26). Isaiah does not contemplate a temple in Egypt: for the only legal temple was at Jerusalem; but, like the patriarchs, they shall have altars in various places. \n\npillar--such as Jacob reared (Gen 28:18; Gen 35:14); it was a common practice in Egypt to raise obelisks commemorating divine and great events. \n\nat the border--of Egypt and Judah, to proclaim to both countries the common faith. This passage shows how the Holy Spirit raised Isaiah above a narrow-minded nationality to a charity anticipatory of gospel catholicity.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["it--the altar and pillar. \n\na sign--(of the fulfilment of prophecy) to their contemporaries. \n\na witness--to their descendants. \n\nunto the Lord--no longer, to their idols, but to Jehovah. \n\nfor they shall cry--or, \"a sign . . . that they cried, . . . and He sent to them a saviour\"; probably, Alexander the Great (so \"a great one\"), whom the Egyptians welcomed as a deliverer (Greek, Soter, a title of the Ptolemies) out of the hands of the Persians, who under Cambyses had been their \"oppressors.\" At Alexandria, called from him, the Old Testament was translated into Greek for the Greek-speaking Jews, who in large numbers dwelt in Egypt under the Ptolemies, his successors. Messiah is the antitype ultimately intended (compare Act 2:10, \"Egypt\").\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["oblation--unbloody.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["return--for heathen sin and idolatry are an apostasy from primitive truth. \n\nheal--as described (Isa 19:18-20).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["highway--free communication, resting on the highest basis, the common faith of both (Isa 19:18; Isa 11:16). Assyria and Egypt were joined under Alexander as parts of his empire: Jews and proselytes from both met at the feasts of Jerusalem. A type of gospel times to come. \n\nserve with--serve Jehovah with the Assyrians. So \"serve\" is used absolutely (Job 36:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["third--The three shall be joined as one nation. \n\nblessing--the source of blessings to other nations, and the object of their benedictions. \n\nin the midst of the land--rather, \"earth\" (Mic 5:7). Judah is designed to be the grand center of the whole earth (Jer 3:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["Whom--rather, \"Which,\" namely, \"the land,\" or \"earth,\" that is, the people of it [MAURER]. \n\nmy people--the peculiar designation of Israel, the elect people, here applied to Egypt to express its entire admission to religious privileges (Rom 9:24-26; Pe1 2:9-10). \n\nwork of my hands--spiritually (Hos 2:23; Eph 2:10).\n\nIn the reign of Sargon (722-715 B.C.), the successor of Shalmaneser, an Assyrian invasion of Egypt took place. Its success is here foretold, and hence a party among the Jews is warned of the folly of their \"expectation\" of aid from Egypt or Ethiopia. At a later period (Isa 18:1-7), when Tirhakah of Ethiopia was their ally, the Ethiopians are treated as friends, to whom God announces the overthrow of the common Assyrian foe, Sennacherib. Egypt and Ethiopia in this chapter (Isa 20:3-4) are represented as allied together, the result no doubt of fear of the common foe; previously they had been at strife, and the Ethiopian king had, just before Sethos usurpation, withdrawn from occupation of part of Lower Egypt. Hence, \"Egypt\" is mentioned alone in Isa. 19:1-25, which refers to a somewhat earlier stage of the same event: a delicate mark of truth. Sargon seems to have been the king who finished the capture of Samaria which Shalmaneser began; the alliance of Hoshea with So or Sabacho II of Ethiopia, and his refusal to pay the usual tribute, provoked Shalmaneser to the invasion. On clay cylindrical seals found in Sennacherib's palace at Koyunjik, the name of Sabacho is deciphered; the two seals are thought, from the inscriptions, to have been attached to the treaty of peace between Egypt and Assyria, which resulted from the invasion of Egypt by Sargon, described in this chapter; Kg2 18:10 curiously confirms the view derived from Assyrian inscriptions, that though Shalmaneser began, Sargon finished the conquest of Samaria; \"they took it\" (compare Kg2 17:4-6). In Sargon's palace at Khorsabad, inscriptions state that 27,280 Israelites were led captive by the founder of the palace. While Shalmaneser was engaged in the siege of Samaria, Sargon probably usurped the supreme power and destroyed him; the siege began in 723 B.C., and ended in 721 B.C., the first year of Sargon's reign. Hence arises the paucity of inscriptions of the two predecessors of Sargon, Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser; the usurper destroyed them, just as Tiglath-pileser destroyed those of Pul (Sardanapalus), the last of the old line of Ninus; the names of his father and grandfather, which have been deciphered in the palace of his son Sennacherib, do not appear in the list of Assyrian kings, which confirms the view that he was a satrap who usurped the throne. He was so able a general that Hezekiah made no attempt to shake off the tribute until the reign of Sennacherib; hence Judah was not invaded now as the lands of the Philistines and Egypt were. After conquering Israel he sent his general, Tartan, to attack the Philistine cities, \"Ashdod,\" &c., preliminary to his invasion of Egypt and Ethiopia; for the line of march to Egypt lay along the southwest coast of Palestine. The inscriptions confirm the prophecy; they tell us he received tribute from a Pharaoh of \"Egypt\"; besides destroying in part the Ethiopian \"No-ammon,\" or Thebes (Nah 3:8); also that he warred with the kings of \"Ashdod,\" Gaza, &c., in harmony with Isaiah here; a memorial tablet of him is found in Cyprus also, showing that he extended his arms to that island. His reign was six or seven years in duration, 722-715 B.C. [G. V. SMITH].\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 20\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Isa. 19:1-25)\n\nburden--(See on Isa 13:1). \n\nupon . . . cloud-- (Psa 104:3; Psa 18:10). \n\ncome into Egypt--to inflict vengeance. \"Egypt,\" in Hebrew, Misraim, plural form, to express the two regions of Egypt. BUNSEN observes, The title of their kings runs thus: \"Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt.\" \n\nidols--the bull, crocodile, &c. The idols poetically are said to be \"moved\" with fear at the presence of one mightier than even they were supposed to be (Exo 12:12; Jer 43:12).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/19.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":19},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/20.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":20},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/18.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":18},"numberOfVerses":24}