Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 19:13

"The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; they have caused Egypt to go astray, that are the corner-stone of her tribes." — Isaiah 19:13 (ASV)

The princes of Zoan - (see the note on Isaiah 19:11). This “repetition” is intensive and emphatic, and shows the prophet's deep conviction regarding their folly. The design is to show that “all” the counselors on whom the Egyptians depended were fools.

The princes of Noph - The Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee render this as ‘Memphis,’ and there is no doubt that this is the city intended. The name Memphis may have easily arisen from Noph. It was also written “Moph,” and thus, Memphis. It is called “Menouf” by the Copts and Arabians. According to Plutarch, the name Memphis means “the port of the good.”

The location of Memphis has been a subject of considerable dispute and has prompted long and laborious investigation. Sicard and Shaw identify its site as Djezeh or Ghizeh, opposite Old Cairo. Pococke, D’Anville, Niebuhr, and other writers and travelers, place Memphis more in the direction of Mitraheny, about fifteen miles further south, on the banks of the Nile, at the entrance of the plain of the mummies, north of which the pyramids are placed.

It was the residence of the ancient kings of Egypt until the time of the Ptolemies, who commonly resided at Alexandria. Memphis retained its splendor until it was conquered by the Arabians, around A.D. 641. At the supposed site of Memphis south of Ghizeh, large mounds of rubbish, a colossal statue sunk in the ground, and a few fragments of granite remain, attesting to the existence of this renowned capital.

In Strabo’s time, although partly in ruins, it was still a populous city, second only to Alexandria. The total disappearance of the ancient edifices of Memphis is easily explained by the fact that its materials were used for building adjacent cities. Fustat rose from its ruins, and when that city was later deserted, its materials were again used for the more modern Cairo (see Robinson’s “Biblical Researches,” vol. 1, p. 40).

They have also seduced Egypt - That is, they have by their counsel caused it to go astray and have led it into its present embarrassment.

The stay ... - Hebrew, פנה pinnâh - the “corner”; that is, those who should have been the support. So the word is used to denote the head or leader of a people in Judges 20:2, Judges 20:14; 1 Samuel 14:38; Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 28:16; and Zechariah 10:4.