Isaiah 19:7

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 19:1-17

Though the land of Egypt had of old been a house of bondage to the people of God, where they had been ruled with rigour, yet among the unbelieving Jews there still remained much of the humour of their fathers, who said, Let us make us a captain and return into Egypt. Upon all occasions they trusted to Egypt for help (Isa. 30:2), and thither they fled, in disobedience to God's express command, when things were brought to the last extremity in their own country, Jer. 43:7. Rabshakeh upbraided... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 19:7

The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks ,.... Not at the fountain or origin of the Nile and its streams, but by the sides thereof; on the banks of which grew a reed or rush, called by the Greeks "papyrus" and "biblus"; from whence come the words "paper" and "bible", or book, of which paper was anciently made; even as early as the times of Isaiah, and so, many hundreds of years before the times of Alexander the great, to which some fix the era of making it. "According to... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 19:1-17

THE BURDEN OF EGYPT . It has been doubted whether this prophecy refers to the conquest of Egypt by Piankhi, as related in the monument which he set up at Napata, or to that by Esarhaddon, of which we gain our knowledge from the inscriptions of his son, Asshur-bani-pal. In the former case, we must suppose it written as early as B.C. 735; in the latter, its date might be as late as B.C. 690. The division of Egypt, "kingdom against kingdom," is a circumstance rather in favor of the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 19:1-17

Egypt's punishment, a proof both of God's song-suffering and of His inexorable justice. The punishment of Egypt by the Assyrian conquest, on which the prophet enlarges in this chapter, may be regarded in a double light. I. AS STRONGLY EXHIBITING THE LONG - SUFFERING AND MERCY OF GOD . 1. Consider the long persistence of Egypt in sins of various kinds—idolatry, king-worship, practice of magic, kidnapping of slaves, cruel usage of captives, impurity, indecency;... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 19:2-10

A picture of penalty. The threatened penalty of Egypt as painted by the prophet here will, on examination, be found to be essentially the penalty with which God causes sin to be visited always and everywhere. I. STRIFE , especially internal strife ( Isaiah 19:2 ). The guilty nation will find itself plunged into civil war (Egypt, Greece, Rome, France, America—northern and southern states, etc.), or rent with bitter and vindictive factions; the guilty family will have its domestic... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 19:5-10

The drying up of the Nile. Nothing has left a deeper mark on the traditions of Eastern lands than the impressions of burning heat, the drying up of springs, the consequent suffering. Egypt was the "gift of the Nile," Herodotus said. Well might the presence or absence of its waters denote the pleasure or the wrath of Deity. I. THE DESCRIPTION . The Pelusiac arm of the Nile is dried. The neglected canals, dykes, and reservoirs become stagnant, the vegetation withers. The bright oasis... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 19:5-10

The withholding of God's gifts making man's woe. These verses are suggestive of the thousandfold forms of trouble that follow on an unusually low Nile, or the failure of the Nile flood. It is peculiar to the valley of the Nile, and the Delta forming the land of Egypt, that cultivation of the soil depends upon the yearly flooding of the river, which, by canals, sluices, ponds, and ditches, is led over the fields as the great fertilizer. Holy Scripture gives us the picture of supreme distress... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 19:7

The paper reeds by the brooks , etc.; rather, the meadows on the river , along the banks of the river , and every seed-plot by the river . The banks of the Nile were partly grass-land ( Genesis 41:2 , Genesis 41:18 ), partly cultivated in grain or vegetables (Herod; 2.14), in either case producing the most luxuriant crops. All, however, depended on the inundation, and if that failed, or so far as it failed, the results predicted by the prophet would happen. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 19:7

The paper reeds - (ערות ‛ârôt). This is not the word which occurs in Isaiah 18:2, and which, it is supposed, means there the papyrus (see the note on that place). Interpreters have been divided in regard to the meaning of the word here. Gesenius derives it from ערה ‛ârâh, “to be naked, open, bare;” and supposes that it means an open place, a place naked of wood, and that it here denotes the pastures on the banks of the Nile. So Rosenmuller interprets it of the green pastures on the banks of... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Isaiah 19:5-10

Isaiah 19:5-10. The waters shall fail from the sea, &c. The river Nile shall cease to pour its usual quantity of water into the sea, being wasted and dried up, as it follows. “Tremellius,” says Lowth, “shows out of Herodotus, that this was literally fulfilled under the government of the twelve petty tyrants who ruled Egypt after Sethon. And Scaliger understands it of a great drought, which occasioned a dearth, by the failing of the inundation of the Nile.” They shall turn the rivers ... read more

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