Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 19:8

"And the fishers shall lament, and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish." — Isaiah 19:8 (ASV)

The fishers also shall mourn. — With the failure of the river, at least one of the industries of Egypt also failed. Fish had at all times formed part of the diet of the working classes of Egypt (Herod. ii. 93; Numbers 11:5), and the pictures of Egyptian life continually represent the two modes of fishing, with the “angle” or hook, and with the net.