John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 19:4

"And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts." — Isaiah 19:4 (ASV)

And I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master. He now shows what will happen to the Egyptians, after having lost courage and been deprived of understanding. Nothing will be left for them but to be reduced to slavery; for a nation lacking these must fall on its own, even if it were not violently attacked by any enemy. Therefore, God deprives those on whom he determines to take vengeance of such aids, and shuts them out from every method of upholding their liberty. Yet the Prophet threatens what is still more shocking: not only will the empire of which the Egyptians proudly boasted fall, but the inhabitants also will undergo hard bondage. Though the adjective קָשֶׁה (qāsheh), cruel, is in the singular number, yet he says in the plural number that they will be subject to lords, which is harder to endure than if there had been only one lord to whom they were subject.

And a powerful king shall rule over them. He means that the power of the tyrant to whom he will subject them will be so great that it will not be easy to restore them to liberty. Historians show that various changes occurred in many countries, which those who subdued them were unable to hold and retain; for to keep what has been obtained is often more difficult than to conquer.

But the Prophet intimates that this condition will not be easily changed, and that the bondage of the Egyptians will be of long duration, because no one will dare to challenge an extremely powerful conqueror. We may also understand the meaning to be that the princes of smaller nations will deal more gently with their people than more powerful monarchs, who, relying on their greatness, allow themselves to do whatever they please; for, considering their power to be unlimited, they set no bounds to their freedom of action and rush forward, without restraint, wherever their passions drive them.

Whether the one view or the other is adopted, it will amount to this: the Egyptians, who consider themselves to be the highest and most distinguished of all men, will fall under the power of another and will be oppressed by hard bondage—that is, by the bondage of a powerful king—whom no one will dare to oppose.

Hence we see how great is the folly of men who desire to have a powerful and wealthy king reigning over them, and how justly they are punished for their ambition, though this folly cannot be corrected by everyday experience, which is visible everywhere in the world.

France and Spain, at the present day, boast that they are governed by mighty princes, but feel to their cost how little advantage they derive from that which dazzles them with a false pretense of honor. But on this subject we have spoken previously in another place (Isaiah 8:6, 7).