Isaiah 20

Isaiah 20:1-6

Chapter 20 The Captivity of Egypt and Cush. In around 713 BC, continually encouraged by Egypt under her Cushite rulers, the cities of Philistia rebelled against Assyria and sought to embroil Judah, Edom and Moab in the rebellion. We know of the facts through Sargon’s inscriptions. He was aware of the intrigue, and the parties involved, but his subsequent behaviour suggests that Judah in fact took no active part in the rebellion, for the severe treatment meted out to Ashdod and other rebel cities after the three years that it took to subdue them, did not include Judah. It was perhaps due to this activity of Isaiah that that was so.Analysis.a In the year that the Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it (Isaiah 20:1).b At that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put your shoe from off your foot.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot (Isaiah 20:2).c And Yahweh said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years, for a sign and a wonder on Egypt and on Cush” (Isaiah 20:3).c “So will the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered to the shame (‘nakedness’) of Egypt” (Isaiah 20:4).b And they will be dismayed and ashamed, because of Cush their expectation, and of Egypt their glory (Isaiah 20:5).a And the inhabitant of this coastland will say in that day, “Behold, such is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria, and we, how will we escape?” (Isaiah 20:6).In ‘a’ the Assyrian general subjugated the rebel Ashdod, and in the parallel other allies of Egypt were dismayed, and asked what hope they had. In ‘b’ Isaiah walks barefoot and naked as a sign of humiliation, and in the parallel that is the kind of humiliation that Egyptian and Cushite captives will suffer. In ‘c’ Yahweh declares that what Isaiah has done is a sign that Egypt and Cushite captives will be treated in this way by the King of Assyria.

Isaiah 20:3-4

‘And Yahweh said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years, for a sign and a wonder on Egypt and on Cush, so will the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered to the shame (‘nakedness’) of Egypt.”Then at the end of the three years of this continual and remarkable sign came the startling explanation. It was Egypt and not Ashdod at whom the sign pointed. Isaiah’s action was to be a sign of what was eventually going to happen to Egypt and Cush. They would be totally defeated and humiliated. This demonstrated that Egypt could never be trusted to act as deliverer because she too would eventually need a deliverer. For both Egyptians and Cushites would be taken into captivity, and walk naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, a particular shame to the sophisticated Egyptians.

They would be humiliated and shamed.This sign and wonder would find fulfilment, firstly after the Battle of Eltekeh (in Palestine) in around 701 BC when Egyptian and Cushite captives would be taken and treated in this way, and then nearly fifty years later when Egypt was invaded, first by Esarhaddon who captured Memphis in the north and established Assyrian rule in the areas around, and then by Ashurbanipal who sacked Thebes in the south. The Cushite dynasty was defeated, and captives young and old would be led away never to return again.

Isaiah 20:5-6

‘And they will be dismayed and ashamed, because of Cush their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. And the inhabitant of this coastland will say in that day, “Behold, such is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria, and we, how will we escape?” ’Thus would Philistia (‘this coastland’), and all who trusted in Egypt recognise their folly in placing confidence in Cush and Egypt. Cush had been their grounds of confidence, Egypt their strongest resource, in whom they had boasted, and they were to be first soundly defeated, and then invaded and crushed. Thus the Philistines and their allies would recognise that in view of this all hope had gone. They had no way of escape. So let Hezekiah beware of trusting in Egypt.The warning comes to us to that we should not put our final trust in anything or anyone but God, Who alone will not let us down.