Isaiah 20

Isaiah 20:1

Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth Countries near Judah An EasyEnglish Bible Version and Commentary (2800 word vocabulary) on Isaiah chapters 13 to 23 www.easyenglish.info Gordon Churchyard This commentary has been through Advanced Checking.

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Chapter 20 v1 In the year [711 *B.C.] the [commander called] the Tartan came to Ashdod. [That was] when Sargon, the king of Assyria, sent him. [The commander] fought against Ashdod’s [people] and he defeated [them].

v2 In that period, the *LORD spoke. [He spoke] by the hand of Isaiah, Amoz’s son. [The *LORD] said, ‘Go [home]. Take the rough hairy clothes off from your body and take the shoes off from your feet.’ And [Isaiah] did that. As he walked about, he was naked. And his feet were bare.

v3 And the *LORD said [this]. ‘For three years, my servant Isaiah was naked as he walked about. And he had bare feet. That showed something special against Egypt and Cush. And [it was] a *prophecy [against them].

v4 This is what the king of Assyria [will do]. He will take away [people] from Egypt as prisoners. And [he will take away people] from Cush as *exiles. Young people and old people will go. They will be naked and they will have bare feet. [People] will see their bottoms. That will make the people from Egypt ashamed.

v5 They (some other people) will be very unhappy and they will be ashamed. They had hoped that [people from] Cush [would help them]. Also, they had said proudly that [people from] Egypt [would help them].

v6 The people that live along this coast will say this in those days. “Look! This happened to the people from whom we hoped [to get help]. We went to them for help. [We did that] to escape from the king of Assyria. And now, we will not be able to escape [from him].” ’ Notes Verse 1 ‘B.C.’ means ‘years Before Christ came to the Earth’. The Tartan was the leader of the army from Assyria. King Sargon, who sent him, wrote a record of this war. That record still exists. It includes these words. ‘I marched to Ashdod. I fought against it. I defeated it.’ Sargon was king of Assyria from 722 until 705 B.C. Ashdod was a city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It was about 50 kilometres west from Jerusalem. It was in the country called Philistia.

Verse 2 This verse starts with an extraordinary statement. ‘The *LORD spoke. [He spoke] by the hand of Isaiah.’ So probably, Isaiah wrote with his hand the words that the *LORD spoke. *Jews wore hairy clothes when they were very sad. They made the hairy clothes from very rough cloth. Prophets probably wore those rough hairy clothes. The prophets were the men who told God’s messages to people. In Matthew 3:4 we can read about John the Baptist. He is called ‘the Baptist’ because of a ceremony called baptism, which he carried out. Matthew tells us an interesting fact about John’s clothes. John wore clothes that someone had made from camels’ hair. That was a similar rough cloth. But at this time, Isaiah wore no clothes and he wore no shoes.

Verse 3 ‘Walked’ means what Isaiah did for those three years. He never wore clothes or shoes! This was the only time when Isaiah acted a prophecy. ‘Prophecy’ here means a message about something that will happen. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Hosea also acted some prophecies.

Verse 4 The people cannot escape. An ‘exile’ is someone that is away from his own country. He is away because an enemy has taken him away. It made people very ashamed if other people could see their bottoms. But armies that defeated people often made those people naked.

Verse 5 We may ask who ‘they’ are here. Look back to the note before Isaiah 19:1. In that note, we read this. Judah’s army must not go together with Egypt’s army to fight against Assyria’s army. So ‘they’ means the people in Judah, and perhaps it means also the people in Philistia (called Philistines). The Philistines lived on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. That was about 50 kilometres west from Jerusalem. Soldiers from Cush will not help those people. Nor will soldiers from Egypt help. Then there will be nothing to talk about in a proud manner.

Verse 6 ‘This coast’ means the coast near Ashdod in Philistia. ‘The people that live along this coast’ probably means the people in Philistia. It probably means also the *Jews that lived near them. ‘In those days’ probably means the time when Assyria’s soldiers will defeat the armies of Egypt and Cush. If Egypt’s and Cush’s armies cannot escape from Assyria’s army, then nobody can! In *Hebrew, the people ask this question. ‘And now, how shall we escape [from him]?’ The answer to the people’s question is probably ‘No way’! ‘There is no way to escape!’ Final note In these two chapters, Isaiah says this to the *Jews. ‘Do not go together with Egypt’s or Cush’s army to fight against Assyria. Assyria will defeat them both.’ Something to do

1. Many countries have these things:

 internal  war

 economic  failure

 bad  leaders.

When you hear about such a country, then pray for that country. Pray that God’s promises in Isaiah 19:21-25 will happen to that country too.

2. Read about God as he ‘rides on the clouds’. You can find such descriptions in Psalms 18:10-12; Psalms 68:4; Psalms 68:33; and Psalms 104:3.

3. Read God’s rules against any conversation with the spirits of dead people. Those rules are in Deuteronomy 18:9-14.

4. In chapters 19 and 20 (and in their notes) we read about Judah, Jerusalem, Ashdod, Egypt, Zoan, Noph (Memphis), Cairo, Cush, Assyria. Study a map to discover where those places were.

5. Read about Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Hosea when they acted some *prophecies. See Jeremiah 19:1-15; Jeremiah 32:6-12; Jeremiah 32:37-44; Ezekiel 5:1-17; and Hosea 1:2 to 2:5.

© 2011, Wycliffe Associates (UK)

This publication is in EasyEnglish Level B (2800 words).

January 2011

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var w3 = new Array;w3[0]=’<b%3Eheavens</b%3E ~ either the home of God or the skies.’;w3[1]=’<b%3EHebrew</b%3E ~ the language that the Jews spoke.