John Gill Commentary Isaiah 19

The burden of Egypt; &c.] Or a prophecy concerning Egypt, as the Arabic version; a very grievous one, declaring many calamities that should come upon them. The Targum is, "the burden of the cup of cursing, to make the Egyptians drink." The people of the Jews reposed great confidence in the Egyptians their allies; wherefore, in order to break this confidence, it was necessary they should be acquainted with the destruction that was coming upon them, which is the design of this prophecy.

Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud; or a "light" one ^F17 denoting the speed with which he came, he would come quickly, light clouds move swiftly; the suddenness and unexpectedness of his coming, clouds being rarely seen in Egypt, where was no rain; and the irresistible power with which he would come, for who or what can stop the clouds of heaven?

not anything on earth, not armies, nor castles, and fortified places. The Lord is represented as riding in great state and majesty, as a general at the head of his army against his enemies; or as a judge going to try and condemn criminals; he rides upon the heavens, walks on the wings of the wind, and the clouds are his chariot, (Psalms 68:4Psalms 68:33) (104:3) so Christ is represented as coming in the clouds of heaven, and as sitting on a white cloud, when he shall come to judge the world, (Revelation 1:7) (14:14)

though these words are not to be understood of that coming of his; and much less of his first coming in the flesh, to which they are weakly applied by Jerom and others; who, by the light cloud, understand the Virgin Mary, as the Christians of Syria; or the human nature of Christ, as Salmero, who relates, that upon Christ's flight into Egypt, and entering into Heliopolis, and the temple there, in which were as many idols as days of the year, they all fell, and so this prophecy was fulfilled ^F18 but of the Lord's coming to inflict punishment on the Egyptians; so the Targum, "and, behold, the Lord shall be revealed in the cloud of his glory, to take vengeance on the Egyptians:"

and shall come into Egypt; not by Sennacherib king of Assyria, and his army, whom he should send to invade it, and enter into it, as some think; but rather by Cambyses and Ochus, kings of Persia; though it seems that what is here foretold should be done, was done, not by means of any foreign power, but by the Lord himself, who did by his own power and providence, or suffer to be done, what was done:

and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence; or tremble before him; these were many, the chief of them were Osiris and Isis, Apis, Serapis, Vulcan, Bubastis; some were living creatures, as cats, dogs, oxen, sheep who might move and tremble, in a literal sense; and some were images, "made with hands", as the Septuagint here render the word; and which, as the Targum paraphrases it, should "be broken"; the sense is, that they could none of them save the Egyptians, or deliver them out of their distresses:

and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it; like wax before the fire; even the most courageous among them, their soldiers, their army, with their officers and generals; which were the heart of the people, and their defence, and who used to fight for them, and protect them, but now would be dispirited.

FOOTNOTES:

• F17: (lq be le) "super nubem levem", V. L. Pagninus
• F18: Vid. Hackspan. Not. Philolog. in S. Scrip. par. 584.

And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians
Or mingle and confound them together; in which confusion they should fall upon and destroy one another, as the Midianites did: the phrase is expressive of rebellions and civil wars, as the following words explain it; and which show, that the calamities of Egypt should be brought upon them, not by means of a foreign invasion, but by internal quarrels, and other means, which the Lord would in judgment send among them: and they shall fight everyone against his brother, and everyone
against his neighbour ;
and destroy one another:

city against city ;
of which there were great numbers in Egypt; in the times of Amasis, it is said ^F19 , there were twenty thousand:

[and] kingdom against kingdom ;
for though Egypt was but originally one kingdom, yet upon the death of Sethon, one of its kings, who had been a priest of Vulcan, there being no successor, twelve of the nobility started up, and set up themselves as kings, and divided the kingdom into twelve parts ^F20 , and reigned in confederacy, for the space of fifteen years;

when, falling out among themselves, they excluded Psammiticus, one of the twelve, from any share of government; who gathering an army together, fought with and conquered the other eleven, and seized the whole kingdom to himself, and who seems afterwards regarded in this prophecy; all this happened in the times of Manasseh king of Judah, and so in or quickly after Isaiah's time:

though some understand this of the civil wars between Apries and Amasis, in the times of Nebuchadnezzar.

The Septuagint version renders the phrase here, "nome against nome"; for the whole land of Egypt, by Sesostris, one of its kings, was divided into thirty six ^F21 nomes, districts, or provinces, whose names are given by Herodotus ^F23 , Pliny {x}, and others;

for so the words of that version should be rendered, and not as they are by the Latin interpreter, and in the Arabic version, which follows it, "law upon law".

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: Herodot. l. 2. c. 177.
• F20: Ib. c. 147.
• F21: There were ten of them in Thebais, the same number in Delta, and sixteen between them.
• F23: Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 164, 165, 166.
• F24: Nat. Hist. I. 5. c. 9. Ptolem. Geograph. l. 4. c. 4. Strabo Geogr. l. 17. P. 541.

And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof , &c.] Meaning not the spirit of valour and courage, that is expressed before, but of wisdom, prudence, and understanding; the wisdom of Egypt, in which Moses is said to be brought up, (Acts 7:22) was famous all the world over; hither men of learning, as the ancient philosophers, Pythagoras, Plato, and others, travelled, to improve in knowledge, and gain a larger acquaintance with things human and divine; it was the mother and mistress of the liberal arts and sciences; but now what was before like a river full of water, was about to be "emptied", and drained dry, as the word ^F25 used signifies:

and I will destroy the counsels thereof ; or "swallow [them] up" ^F26, so that they shall be no more seen, or take effect: this explains what is before meant by the spirit of Egypt, and which is further enlarged on, and illustrated in (Isaiah 19:11–13) ,

and they shall seek to the idols ; with which the land abounded, particularly to Osiris and Isis, to Apis, Latona, and others: and to the charmers ; that used incantations and spells; magicians and conjurers, that whispered and muttered; for the word used has the signification of speaking in a slow and drawling manner. The Targum renders it "witches"; but Jarchi takes it to be the name of an idol:

and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards ; (See Gill on Isaiah 8:19).

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: (hqbn) "evacuabitur", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Cocceius.
• F26: (elba) "deglutiam", Montanus; "absorpsero", Junius & Tremellius; "absorbebo", Piscator.

And the Egyptians will I give over into the hands of a
cruel lord
Not of Sennacherib king of Assyria, which way go many interpreters, both Christian and Jewish, as Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi; nor of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, as in (Jeremiah 46:25Jeremiah 46:26) but either of the twelve tyrants that rose up after the death of Sethon above mentioned; for the word is in the plural number, "lords", though the adjective rendered "cruel" is singular; or else Psammiticus, the father of Pharaohnecho, that slew Josiah; and who conquered the other eleven tyrants, and ruled alone, for the space of fifty four years, with great rigour; and the same is designed in the next clause: and a fierce king shall rule over them ;
it is reported of Psammiticus, that he gave such offence to his subjects, that two hundred thousand of his soldiers left him, and went into Ethiopia ^F1 .

Vitringa interprets this of the Persian emperors, into whose hands Egypt fell, as Cambyses and Ochus; and who, according to historians, were very cruel princes. That there might be no doubt of the sure and certain accomplishment of this prophecy, it is added, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts ;
of the armies above and below; and who does what he pleases among the kings and kingdoms of the earth.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: See Raleigh's History of the World, B. 2. c. 27. sect. 3. p. 357.

And the waters shall fail from the sea
Which Kimchi understands figuratively of the destruction of the Egyptians by the king of Assyria, compared to the drying up of the waters of the Nile; and others think that the failure of their trade by sea is meant, which brought great revenues into the kingdom: but, by what follows, it seems best to take the words in a literal sense, of the waters of the river Nile, which being dried up, as in the next clause, could not empty themselves into the sea, as they used, and therefore very properly may be said to fail from it; nay, the Nile itself may be called a sea, it being so large a confluence of water: and the river shall be wasted and dried up ;

that is, the river Nile, which was not only very useful for their trade and navigation, but the fruitfulness of the country depended upon it; for the want of rain, in the land of Egypt, was supplied by the overflow of this river, at certain times, which brought and left such a slime upon the earth, as made it exceeding fertile; now the drying up of this river was either occasioned by some great drought, which God in judgment sent; or by the practices of some of their princes with this river, by which it was greatly impaired, and its usefulness diminished.